Sources: http://www.tohoku.ac.jp and http://www.imr.tohoku.ac.jp/index-e.html and http://hh.ifs.tohoku.ac.jp/IFS/INFORMATION
The Computer Center of Tohoku University (CCTU) was founded in June 1969 as an inter-university cooperative institution to meet the computation and information processing requirements' of students and research scholars. The SX-1 super computer was introduced in 1986 to meet the demand for large scale scientific computation. In February 1989, the SX-1 was replaced by the SX-2N super computer. And in January 1994, the SX-2N was replaced by a more powerful SX-3/44R. The current architecture is quite new and unique considering the quality as well as the magnitude of the features offered. The peak vectorial processing rate of SX-3/44R is 25.6 GFLOPS. It has 4GB main storage, 16GB extended memory units (XMU), 22. 9GB array disk units, 114 GB magnetic disk units, and 290GB cartridge tape library units.
The Institute of Fluid Science was originally founded on October 5, 1943 in Tohoku University as the "Institute of High Speed Mechanics (IHSM)" for promoting the researches on hydraulic machinery and cavitation on hydrofoils. The research field of the institute was extended to develop the Thermal Dynamics and the Gas Dynamics to cover the industrial fields of mechanical engineering and the aeronautical engineering. The research activity contributed to industrial technology, for example, the development of the jet engine "Ne20" in 1944, which was the first one in Japan. The researches on the flow phenomena in the various pipes had also made remarkable achievements. The institute consists of twelve research sections and one research center. The supercomputer CRAY Y-MP8 was installed at the institute on January 1, 1992 to promote the research on fluid science in the viewpoint of the computational fluid dynamics and the supercomputer CRAY C916 was reinstalled at the institute on November 1, 1994 to provide the computation with higher performance.
The Institute for Materials Research (IMR) was reorganized on May 21, 1987 as a collaborative research institute to meet the current rapid progress in materials science. IMR provides opportunities for the researchers both in academic institutes and industries to carry out cooperative work for mutual benefits. The chance for this collaboration is open not only to Japanese researchers but also to those overseas. Historically IMR was initiated in 1916 in Tohoku University as the Second Division of the Provisional Institute of Physical and Chemical Research for promoting physical, chemical and metallurgical research on alloys. It was inaugurated on May 21, 1919 under the name of the Iron and Steel Research Institute, as the first research institute affiliated with the national university in Japan. By 1922 the research activities of this institute were extended to cover light and nonferrous metals and alloys. The field of research of the Institute now covers the problems on ceramics and semiconductors.