The High-Performance Computing Research Center houses Princeton University's computing research systems on the Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro about three miles from the main campus. It serves as home of TIGRESS -- the Terascale Infrastructure for Groundbreaking Research in Engineering and Science Center.
TIGRESS is a collaborative effort that brings together funding, support, and participation from many departments and organizations across the University. The center is designed to create a well balanced set of High Performance Computing (HPC) resources meeting the broad computational requirements of Princeton's research community. The facility supports a much smaller component of the University's administrative computing capacity.
The two-story building has approximately 40,000 square feet and comprises three functional components: a computing area; an electrical and mechanical support area; and a small office/support area.
Data centers can use remarkable amounts of energy, and considerable efforts were put into making the HPCRC a model of what can be done by recapturing and utilizing waste heat from the servers. Thanks to this technology, and many other energy-saving details, Princeton's data center has been certified "LEED Gold" by the United States Green Building Council.