Texas A&M research agency taps Dell Technologies for AI computing platform

The Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) has selected Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) to design and build a new AI and high-performance computing platform called IGNITE, funded by the State of Texas, according to a press release.

IGNITE, which stands for Innovative Growth in Next Generation AI Technology Ecosystem, will be deployed at an Equinix data center in Dallas. The platform will feature Dell PowerRack systems with liquid-cooled Dell PowerEdge XE9785L servers and AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs. Storage will be provided through Dell's AI Data Platform, with ongoing operations supported by Dell Managed Services.

The platform is designed to support research across engineering, national security, scientific discovery and other disciplines, handling workloads with varying security requirements through a shared infrastructure model governed by zero trust security controls. The agreement between TEES and Dell was signed in the second quarter of Dell's fiscal year 2027.

TEES said the platform is intended to support research areas including AI model and large language model development, materials discovery, advanced manufacturing, robotics, and defense- and aerospace-related research.

"This platform we're building with Dell Technologies expands what we can take on — supporting increasingly complex, secure research for years to come," said Dr. Robert H. Bishop, vice chancellor and dean of Texas A&M Engineering.

Dell already supplies technology for existing Texas A&M HPC systems, including platforms known as FASTER, Grace, ACES and Launch. The IGNITE platform will be hosted at an Equinix International Business Exchange data center in Dallas.

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