LinuxPlanet: SGI Busts into Linux with 64-Processor Scalability

“There’s been a rather odd rumor in the world of
high-performance computing that Linux does not scale well beyond
eight processors. But Silicon Graphics, Inc. has blown that myth
right out of the proverbial waters with today’s release of a new
line of servers that can physically scale up to 12 processors and
96 GB of memory.

“If that does not sound like a major breakthrough, then how
about this one: SGI also announced the release of a supercluster
product line that will scale up to 64 Itanium 2 processors and 512
GB of memory in a single node.

“Using SGI’s new hardware architecture, these 64-processor
machines can be tied together to form superclusters that eventually
will virtually behave as a single computer with up to 2,048
processors.

“This may seem impossible to believe, if you listened to
hardware vendors that proclaimed left and right that Linux simply
did not scale beyond the magic number eight processors. Those
familiar with Linux and its underpinings in the kernel knew full
well that there was nothing inherent in the operating system that
was creating this limitation. SGI’s new Altix 3000 product line
seems to prove this once and for all…”

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