In March 2023, TMGcore, Inc. signed a 12-month extension to the Limited Purpose-Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (LP-CRADA) it has with the Naval Postgraduate School to support education and research initiatives through March 31, 2024.
NPS and TMGcore originally linked up in August 2021 with a five-month LP-CRADA to test and evaluate TMGcore’s OTTO Edgebox technology and enable novel research that requires high-performance computing solutions. The LP-CRADA was extended again in December 2021, April 2022 and September 2022 leading to the most recent extension. Since the start of the relationship, NPS students and faculty have explored applicable use cases of the two-phase liquid immersion cooling data center to advance the mission objectives of military operators.
TMGcore, Inc., provides high-performance computing solutions and manufactures evolutionary commercial-grade hardware specializing in liquid immersion cooling technology.
Under the initial LP-CRADA umbrella and through participation in NPS’ Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX), TMGcore, Inc., demonstrated in field execution of high-performance compute coupled with high speed 5G communications at the tactical edge, showcasing how compute intensive workloads can be processed closer to the point of data creation. According to TMGcore, this advanced compute capability eliminates the need to backhaul data, accelerates time to outcome, increases data fidelity, and mitigates communication risks, which is becoming increasingly important due to near-peer adversary threats.
Under the extended agreement, TMGcore, Inc., is currently working with Chris Fitzpatrick, Faculty Associate for Research in the Modeling Virtual Environments and Simulation (MOVES) Institute at NPS. Fitzpatrick is developing a new live virtual construction (LVC) curriculum and TMGcore plans to assist in the field execution of this program during FY24 through integration of high-performance computing equipment into the MOVES LVC Interoperability Lab.
“The integration of TMGcore’s state-of-the-art computing solutions will provide NPS and the DOD Modeling & Simulation community a high performance, networked computing environment to enable better sponsor oversight of on-campus research projects and student theses, increased integration with LVC training events, increased participation in LVC system test and evaluation events, and a better access to M&S information including specifications, instructions, guidelines, educational products, and service-specific guidance,” said Fitzpatrick. “In addition, it will ensure a smooth transition to conducting secure LVC research across all Departments on campus.”
The collaboration with TMGcore will also support NPS’ CRADA work with AT&T in which the MOVES Institute will investigate how small units will utilize the Live Virtual Constructive Training Environment (LVC-TE) to test new concepts and tactics. TMGcore will deliver GPU intensive processing to support LVC-TE execution at the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Center and Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in 29 Palms, California, to ensure optimal simulation performance and mitigate latency, which is critical to scenario delivery on AR/VR headsets.
“Through our partnership with NPS and relationships with government agencies and customers, TMGcore has advanced our platform capabilities to meet rapidly evolving technical and mission requirements in the DOD,” said Seamus Egan, Vice President, Government Integrated Solutions at TMGcore, Inc. “We are continuing to enrich our platform for security compliance with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), ensure radio frequency signature reduction, and we are initiating efforts to ruggedize our platform to military standards for shock & vibration. All these developments will help to move our platform closer to deployment requirements of the Navy and Marine Corps.”
TMGcore, Inc., has several industry firsts, including the recent deployment of an immersion 200 Gigabyte Ethernet (200GbE) Mellanox InfiniBand switch in support of the Air Force Research Lab’s high-performance computing research at the Maui HPC Center, which is one of the five DOD Supercomputing Resource Centers (DSRC) in the DOD’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program. TMGcore’s most recent product, the EBX, is one-third the size and over four times the compute capacity as their EdgeBox 4.5, which is currently deployed in the Tech Demo Room of the Dudley Knox Library at NPS.
“We look forward to opportunities to introduce our technology to the Navy and Marine Corps community while advancing the capabilities of the EBX in the coming quarters,” said Egan.
