“IBM is making it easier for users to build clusters of Linux
servers for running large computationally intensive applications.
The company today announced a series of prepackaged Linux cluster
offerings that it claimed will allow users to tie up to 64,
two-processor Intel Corp. servers into one massive Linux
cluster.”
“IBM’s Solutions Series for Linux Clusters combines its
Netfinity PC server line with Arcadia, Calif.-based Myricom Inc.’s
Myrinent cluster interconnect technologies, Santa Clara,
Calif.-based Extreme Network Inc.’s Ethernet switches and terminal
servers from Equinox Systems Inc. in Sunrise, Fla. IBM will also
bundle in supporting software and utilities for installing and
managing applications, said David Gelardi, a director at IBM’s Deep
Computing group.”
“Users can buy the clusters in configurations of 8, 16, 32
and 64 nodes. … The first Linux clusters are being targeted
mainly at engineering and scientific markets because that is
where the applications are, Gelardi said. … IBM plans to make
similar clusters available for commercial applications such as data
warehousing and Web serving in the future, Gelardi said. Also
on the cards is a high-availability cluster configuration, he
added.”