“Hot on the heels of last week’s Telia deal, IBM has announced
another high-end Linux deployment: it will be teaming with Shell
International Exploration & Production B.V. to develop and
deploy the world’s largest Linux supercomputer. Built out of 1024
IBM xSeries servers and packaged in 32 racks, the supercomputer
will run Red Hat Linux.”
“Shell plans to use the supercomputer, valued in the millions of
dollars though officials declined to place a specific price tag on
the deal, to aid in oil exploration with seismic and other
geophysical applications fed with information from Shell
exploration surveys.”
“Though this is the second time Red Hat will provide the
distribution for a high profile, major deployment (the last being
the Lawson server deployment in Japan), IBM’s Vice President for
Global Linux Strategy Steven Solazzo said decisions about which
distribution to use aren’t determined by IBM, as in this
instance:”