Leveraging Linux for Supercomputing

“Thus, aggregation provides an affordable, virtual x86 platform
with large, shared memory. Server virtualization for aggregation
replaces the functionality of custom and proprietary chipsets with
software and utilizes only a tiny fraction of a system’s CPUs and
RAM to provide chipset-level services without sacrificing system
performance.

“High-performance computing (HPC) applications such as numerical
simulation — whether for forecasting, mechanical and structure
simulation, or computational chemistry — require a large number of
CPUs for processing. To meet these needs, customers must buy a
large-scale system that enables parallel processing so that the
simulation can be completed in the shortest possible time. Such
solutions are available in two forms: scale-up and scale-out.

“Traditionally, scale-up customers have had no choice but to
purchase high-cost, proprietary shared-memory symmetric
multiprocessing (SMP) systems for HPC needs with proprietary
operating systems such as AIX, Solaris, HPUX and others. These SMP
systems require significant investment in system-level architecture
by computer manufacturers.”

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