Department of Defense to install Linux supercomputer
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) said it plans within the next few months to install a 512-processor Linux cluster at a computing facility in Hawaii. The supercomputer is supposed to be able to process 478 billion calculations per second. It will be used for applications such as tracking and fighting wildfires across the country.
The Linux cluster is being built by IBM at the Maui High Performance Computing Center and will be used by the DOD, other government agencies and academic institutions. In addition to tracking fires, uses eyed for the cluster include environmental research and combat-related projects.
The Latest for Linux
The announcement by IBM and the DOD on Feb. 23 is the latest in a string of Linux-based supercomputer projects that have been unveiled within the past few months. In January, for example, supercomputer initiatives involving the open-source operating system were announced by both IBM and Compaq Computer Corp.
Dave Gelardi, director of deep computing projects at IBM, said the U.S. Forest Service plans to use the Maui cluster to track and predict the speed, spread rate and other movements of wildfires, in an effort to improve firefighting efforts. The system will conduct weather simulation modeling and perform complex weather calculations, he said.
Last year, wildfires burned 7 million acres in the U.S., costing an estimated $1.6 billion, according to federal statistics.
The machine is being built using 256 of IBM's eServer x330 thin servers, each of which contains two Pentium III processors. The servers are being linked together via clustering software made by Myricom Inc. in Arcadia, Calif., and high-speed networking hardware. The exact price of the machine isn't being released, but Gelardi said it's less than $10 million.
Frank Gilfeather, executive director of the High Performance Computing Education and Research Center in Maui, said in a statement that he expects Linux cluster technology to "pervade the DOD's computing centers" within the next few years.
Gilfeather's operation administers the Maui High Performance Computing Center and is affiliated with the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque through an agreement with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
The Linux supercluster will also be used for other environmental research, according to IBM, including investigations of hurricanes and tsunamis. The machine will also be used for two military projects: the "Automatic Target Recognition Performance Evaluation" and the "Analysis of a Full Aircraft with Massive Separation Using Detached Eddy Simulation."
An IBM SP supercomputer is already located at the Maui High Performance Computing Center.
» posted by abennett
Computerworld
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