NCSA NEWS

IBM and NCSA Create World's Fastest Linux Supercomputers in Academia

released January 11, 2001

 

Contacts
Karen Green
NCSA
kareng@ncsa.uiuc.edu
217.265.0748

Lisa Lanspery
IBM
lisalans@us.ibm.com
212.745.2304

IBM Linux servers deliver two teraflops of processing speed

ARMONK, NY — IBM and The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign today announced that NCSA will install two IBM Linux clusters, creating the world's fastest Linux supercomputers in academia. NCSA's clusters will have two teraflops of computing power and will be used by researchers to study some of the most fundamental questions of science, such as the nature of gravitational waves first predicted by Albert Einstein in his Theory of Relativity.

"We believe that Linux clusters will soon be the most widely used architecture for parallel computing, and that these two clusters from IBM are the best way to deliver terascale performance," said Dan Reed, Director of NCSA and the National Computational Science Alliance. "The explosion of the open source community, the maturity of clustering software, and the enthusiasm of the scientific community all tell us that Linux clusters are the future of high-performance computing."

Reed added that Linux clusters provide users with a single, easy-to-use computing environment that applies to single-user desktop workstations, small research clusters, and the largest terascale systems.

The two NCSA Linux clusters will include more than 600 IBM eServer xSeries running Linux and Myricom's Myrinet (http://www.myricom.com/) cluster interconnect network. The first cluster, to be installed in February by IBM Global Services, will be based on IBM eServer x330 thin servers, each with two 1 GHz Intel Pentium III processors, running Red Hat Linux. The second cluster, to be installed this summer, will be one of the first to use Intel's next generation 64-bit Itanium™ processor and will run TurboLinux. The two clusters will expand the proven capability that NCSA has already demonstrated with Linux clusters and both Intel architectures.

"These IBM Linux clusters will enable scientists to focus more on the results of their research initiatives, freeing them from the additional burden of building their own clusters and writing code to support their heavy computational demands," said Dave Turek, vice-president of Deep Computing at IBM. "We are seeing an increase in demand for this type of empowering technology within the scientific community."

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is the leading-edge site for the National Computational Science Alliance. NCSA is a leader in the development and deployment of cutting-edge high-performance computing, networking, and information technologies. The National Science Foundation, the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, industrial partners, and other federal agencies fund NCSA. For more information visit http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/.

The National Computational Science Alliance is a partnership to prototype an advanced computational infrastructure for the 21st century and includes more than 50 academic, government and industry research partners from across the United States. The Alliance is one of two partnerships funded by the National Science Foundation's Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program, and receives cost sharing at partner institutions. NSF also supports the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI), led by the San Diego Supercomputer Center. For more information see http://alliance.ncsa.uiuc.edu/.

The new IBM eServer xSeries, zSeries, pSeries and iSeries models are the first servers in IBM's new eServer line. The eServer products are designed for the next generation of e-business to adapt to the needs of the customer by offering flexibility, technology and guaranteed performance. The IBM eServer family is the world's first Linux-enabled server family. IBM eServer xSeries servers are based on the IBM X-Architecture, a blueprint for incorporating the latest mainframe technologies into Intel processor-based servers.

For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/eserver/.

The IBM eServer brand consists of the established IBM e-business logo with the following descriptive term "server" following it. The IBM e-business logo, xSeries iSeries, pSeries and zSeries are trademarks or registered trademarks of the IBM Corporation.

Linux is registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

All others are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

 

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