[ Thanks to Matt for
this link. ]
[Editor’s Note: This is a bit of technical marketing from
BP, but it does give a lot of depth on just what all of
those seismic-computing Linux clusters are actually doing. -Peace,
BKP]
“Motionless they stand, near-silent sentinels staring across a
temperature-controlled world away from the normal hubbub of office
life. The sound they produce is little more than a low hum; there
are no spectacular flashing lights, no spinning tape reels. Nothing
to indicate what lies within.“But looks can deceive. For here, nestled in a quiet wing of
BP’s Westlake office campus in Houston, these outwardly
ordinary-looking banks of computers not only house the latest in
silicon chip technology, but operate in harmony to lay claim to
being one of the most powerful commercial computing centres in any
industry, anywhere in the world. And for the job BP is asking them
to do, they need to be.“Critical to this success has been the adoption of the Linux
operating system to control the computers. Linux represents a
significant departure in the world of computers as it is
effectively ‘free’ to users as part of what is known as the open
source software community. The operating system, developed by
student inventor Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in
Finland, came into being in 1991. While Linux bears similarities to
the well-established proprietary UNIX operating systems, its source
code and software kernel remain freely distributable. This fact has
enabled many software programmers to expand and advance the system,
making it a highly attractive lower cost alternative offering
sophistication, reliability and the capacity to be upgraded as
required…”