"Mention HPC clusters and one of the first things that comes to mind is Linux. One might assume, that the reason is because Linux is very popular and free. While this is true, the growth of HPC (High Performance Computing) clusters has grown on its own merits and not necessarily on the popularity or cost of Linux in general. Of course, there are server farms based on Linux, but I'm talking about the big-honking clusters crunching away on some fundamental problem in science. What did these users see in Linux that has made it so successful? And, more importantly, what can it tell us about how we might approach HPC in the future.
"The history of the Beowulf project is a fascinating read. The article Beowulf Breakthroughs by Tom Sterling in the June 2003 issue of Linux Magazine is an excellent description of the motivation and people who pioneered the effort..."
