La Jolla

In an effort to bolster its research capacity in the booming biotechnology field, the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation has ordered a $5-million supercomputer that will dwarf the facility’s existing system, officials said Wednesday.

The computer, built by Minnesota-based Cray Research, is expected to be installed in late March, replacing a smaller Cray unit that went on line at the foundation in 1987.

Officials say the new model will be used for biotechnology investigations such as designing and deciphering the shapes and dynamics of proteins and other basic materials.

The new computer represents a significant upgrade from the existing system at Scripps, and has double the memory of the supercomputer now in operation at nearby UC San Diego.

Nonetheless, the university’s computer will remain a faster system because it has four processors, whereas the Scripp’s Clinic model will operate with just one. Moreover, UC San Diego may upgrade its unit later this year if funding can be obtained.

Word of the new supercomputer at Scripps, which will be leased from Cray, comes on the heels of an announcement earlier this month that the foundation had acquired nearly 21 acres of raw land across from its existing plant for $16.1 million to develop a new biotech and research facility.

The new property nearly doubles the size of the existing 25-acre campus on Torrey Pines Mesa, giving the booming institution room to grow into the next century.