Computerworld: Bell, Torvalds Usher in Next Wave of Supercomputing

"Some of the IT world's top luminaries gathered at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., Friday to witness the unveiling of a compact supercomputer that proponents say could provide the model for high-performance computing systems in the years ahead.

"Gordon Bell, one of the original brains behind the minicomputer, and Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system, joined a collection of scientists for the unveiling of the supercomputer, a Beowolf cluster called Green Destiny that was built from hundreds of so-called blade servers -- compact servers stripped down to their most basic components...

"Unlike many supercomputers that use specialized components and can fill entire buildings, the Green Destiny fits 240 server blades from RLX Technologies Inc. into a server rack that would fit inside most closets. The blades use low-powered processors from Transmeta Corp. and a version of the Linux operating system..."

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