IBM To Build Linux Supercomputer For NCSA

[Gene Holmerud]

GOOD MORNING! Today is Jan. 18, and this is ... InformationWeek Daily!


** IBM To Build Linux Supercomputer For NCSA

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has hired IBM to build a
Linux-based supercomputer that should be the fastest computer in
academia, and possibly one of the five fastest machines in the world.
The system, which will consist of two IBM Linux clusters, will operate
at a speed of about 2 trillion calculations per second and will be
used to research everything from astrophysics to medical science.

The first cluster, which should be running by the end of February,
will be based on IBM eServers, each with two 1-GHz Pentium III
processors running Red Hat Linux. The second, expected to be completed
by June, will use Intel's next-generation 64-bit Itanium processors,
running TurboLinux. When complete, the clusters will use more than 600
eServers and will operate in tandem using Myricom Inc.'s Myrinet
cluster interconnect network. The cost of the system has not been
specified.

NCSA director Dan Reed says the center decided to use a Linux system
partly because it was possible to develop a high-performance system on
a fixed budget, but mostly because it's driven by its customers. The
NCSA is a federally funded research center, he says, and it makes its
machines available to scientists around the country. Reed says most of
these researchers run Linux in their laboratories. The NCSA also liked
IBM's commitment to the open-source operating system and its ability
to provide support.

This is the third Linux supercomputer IBM has built and "clearly one
of the more substantial deals that we've closed so far," says David
Gelardi, IBM's director of deep computing marketing and operations. He
says that while "it's unlikely in the near term" that a great deal of
companies are going to want these machines, IBM expects to see "more
commercial or business-oriented customers" looking "very deliberately"
at the systems. Says Gelardi, "We have a very heavy list of
opportunities that we're looking at around the world."
- David M. Ewalt