Feynman Center Opens New Era for Fermilab Computing
The Feynman Computing Center.
Turn back the calendar to the 1800s and imagine the excitement westward-bound settlers felt when they saw seemingly unlimited expanses of land available to them for development and growth. Viewed from their cramped conditions of 1988, Fermilab's Computing Department relived the essence of that feeling when the 74,000 square-foot Feynman Computing Center officially opened its doors on December 2, 1988, to meet Fermilab's computing space needs. Construction of the new center was funded by a portion of the $24.6 million, 4-year Fermilab Central Computing Upgrade Project (CCUP). The Department of Energy described the project's goals as "to increase five-fold the computing capacity available for scientific applications and to provide new space for these and related activities."
The CCUP was conceived under the direction of Al Brenner, previous head of the Computing Department. The project, in its last year, is is now directed by Computing Department Head Jeff Appel. This article, which focuses on the architectural evolution of the building and general building layout, is the first in a series of articles about the new center.
"The Feynman Computing Center is, I think, a particularly successful adaptation of Dr. Wilson's artistic ideas," said Edward Crumpley (Const. Engin. Serv.). Fermilab Director Emeritus Robert R. Wilson acted as architectural consultant to the project and Wayne Nestander, Head of Construction Engineering Services (CES), oversaw the architectural work. Crumpley, as Lead Architect, made sure that he designed a building that accurately reflected Dr. Wilson's artistic vision of the new center.
The whole process, from conception to completion, took a little more than four years. "It's extremely unusual how much of the architectural work was done here; it was quite an undertaking for a group the size of ours," Crumpley said. Throughout this process, Crumpley worked closely with Dr. Wilson. "During the very early planning stages of the building, Dr. Wilson had an idea of what the building might look like. We worked with him to combine his artistic approach with our functional requirements."
Crumpley explained that "as one of Dr. Wilson's 'landmark buildings,' many design elements in the Computing Center carry over from other Fermilab buildings." For example, "the pre-cast concrete panels reflect those at the Ramsey Auditorium, except that these are larger and not set at quite the same angle," and the semi-circular shape recalls the Auditorium's curve.
An early challenge was developing detailed building plans. "We had to establish, among other things, how much space a certain kind of computer would require, where we would need access floors, and where cables would run from one floor to another." Crumpley emphasized the role team effort played in developing plans. "We worked with CES mechanical and electrical engineers to develop environmental systems, and our people have done a spectacular job." He credited Steve Krstulovich (Const. Engin. Serv.) and his staff with designing an energy-efficient climate control system. "It's an extremely efficient building, and the Association of Energy Engineers awarded its annual Corporate Energy Management Award in recognition of the building's efficiency."
Crumpley recalled that even some of the apparently simple design decisions were difficult. “Dr. Wilson’s design called for one side of the building to be an all-glass façade, but we weren’t sure what kind of glass to use. We started out with the notion that it would be blue reflective glass.” To help visualize such a façade, “We took Dr. Wilson on a tour of Chicago to look at buildings with different colors of glass. We saw too many unattractive buildings with such treatment, and as a result, we backed into the choice of gray reflective glass instead.” In addition to resembling the gray glass in other Lab buildings, the reflective quality “helps to reduce the solar load.”
Crumpley feels that, architecturally, the building is unique in two respects: the pre-cast panels and the smooth glass façade. “The panels are some of the largest pre-cast panels anywhere. They weigh 37.5 tons each and are about 48 feet long. Because of their size, one of the major concerns was getting them down the highway. And it’s also very difficult to get one of those off the truck and into a vertical position.” In contrast to the pre-cast panels, on the other side of the building, is a very sleek, all-glass façade with all-glass entries. “It’s as though the entries were carved out of the glass.”
In comparison to the relevant sections of the Department’s original home in Wilson Hall, Jeff Appel said, the new three-story building increases available space by “a factor of two for each function.” The building actually becomes two or three areas, secure from each other, and that’s where the different floor levels helped to develop this security ability.
Jack MacNerland, building manager for the Center, pointed out that access to many of the Center’s rooms is computer controlled and monitored. “Users have 24-hour access to the Center, but inside the building, many areas are limited to personnel with special cards. The cards are more convenient and offer greater security than easily-duplicated keys.”
The first and second floors contain computing space and utility-support space. A portion of the first floor will be a user area with a nearby conference room. In the users’ area, people can use a terminal and obtain a printout. Currently, much of the users’ area is a large classroom. A major portion of the first floor houses attended computers and operations responsible for mounting computer tapes. The Fermilab-designed Advanced Computer Program systems are also on the first floor. This section is inaccessible to users. A walk down a short ramp on the first floor leads to a tape vault where, from wall to wall and ceiling to floor, racks store computer tapes. “As tape vaults go, this is quite large,” explained Gene Dentino, Manager, Computer Operations. “This tape vault can accommodate approximately 180,000 tape reels. Right now, it houses the 35,000 tapes taken during the last fixed-target run. Alternatively, with higher-density data storage media, the first floor can house as many as 500,000 cartridges.”
The second floor supports functional computer groups: the IBM administrative processor, the Digital Equipment Corporation VAX clusters, and the new Amdahl large-scale scientific computer. This floor houses the central processing units and their disk storage systems, and also the communication functions that feed back to the rest of the Lab.
The third floor houses support personnel from the Computing Department, including the Data Acquisition Hardware Groups, Computing Hardware Maintenance Group, the Instrument Repair Group, and the Physics Research Equipment Pool. If needed, the third floor can economically accommodate additional computing equipment. The third floor is accessible to Fermilab personnel during working hours. In the future, a library will complete the center's accommodations for the user community.
The Center meets and exceeds the expectations of those involved with its development. Appel feels that "the building is working very well; people are very happy." Others, like Crumpley, feel similarly: "It's a nice mixture of practicality and Dr. Wilson's aesthetic. A lot of good work went into it."