Enterprise Linux Today: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Adds Supercomputing Power to ASCI

“SGI Federal, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SGI
(NYSE:SGI)
, the leading provider of high-performance computing and
visualization solutions for technical and creative users, has
teamed up with Linux cluster computing expert Linux NetworX to win
a bid to build three Parallel Capacity Resource (PCR) Linux cluster
computing systems totaling 472 Pentium 4 processors for the
National Nuclear Security Administration’s Accelerated Strategic
Computing Initiative (ASCI) ongoing computing element. With a
theoretical peak performance of 857 gigaFLOP/s, the largest of the
three systems with 252 Pentium 4 processors, named PCR P4A, will be
one the fastest Linux clusters ever built.

Linux clustering, an alternative to traditional supercomputing,
is a method of linking multiple computers together to form a
unified and very powerful system. By taking advantage of standard
computer components, Linux clusters can match the performance of
supercomputers for a fraction of the cost.

In its latest effort to boost parallel capacity computing power
for ASCI’s ongoing computing element, Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL) will have two of the three Linux clusters working
on the project, while a third will be used as a joint development
cluster with Linux NetworX and SGI Federal for open source
projects.”

Press
Release