The UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) Center for Electronic Computation adds an academic body to society through research projects, technical and professional qualification and technological development. If offers post-graduate programs, college extension courses, separate courses, advisory in several areas, besides providing services in organizing exams for several public and private institutions nationwide. It also develops the systems that manage UFRJ’s academic and administrative life.

The Project

Petrobras invested R$ 5.8 million in a supercomputer with a processing capacity of 16.2 teraFLOPs, or more than 16 trillion mathematical operations per second, which promises to revolutionize research in the area of oceanography and geophysics in Brazil. Developed by Cimcorp and called Netuno (Neptune), the computer is installed in ten cabinets with 2.2 meters in height each. Approximately 25 people participated in the creation of Netuno, 20 of them in the planning process, which lasted 8 months, and the rest in the assembly of the gigantic machine.

The machine will be used primarily for calculations that allow for the mapping of soil and predicting the movement of the oceans. According to Ricardo Bragança, geophysicist of the Petrobras Research and Development Center (Cenpes), Netuno’s main function is the creation of software for scientific research.

Netuno is operating at UFRJ, but any other university can use it for research purposes. The calculations performed by the supercomputer will help several segments, especially those that depend on natural resources and have their activities impacted by climate or environmental changes.