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PNNL supercomputer fastest open system in U.S.
PNNL Press release ^ | 8/26/2003 | PNNL

Posted on 08/28/2003 6:06:58 AM PDT by justlurking

All associated photos

 PNNL supercomputer fastest open system in U.S.
11.8T HP supercomputer with Intel Itanium2 processors running Linux reaches full operations.

RICHLAND, Wash. The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is now home to the United States' fastest operational unclassified supercomputer. The laboratory's 11.8 teraflops industry-standard HP Integrity system came to full operating power this week, marking the next advance in high-performance computing designed to enable new insights in the environmental and molecular sciences, including chemistry, biology, climate and subsurface chemistry.

Based on peak performance, the PNNL machine is the fifth fastest system in the world and is the fastest unclassified computer operating in the U.S. The laboratory ordered the supercomputer from HP in April 2002.

"Computational resources such as the PNNL supercomputer are essential to DOE's commitment to provide the most innovative solutions to critical energy and environmental problems," said Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. "DOE continues to demonstrate its competitiveness in high-performance computing capabilities by investing in new systems and new approaches to scientific inquiry."

The PNNL system is the world's fastest supercomputer based on the Linux operating system and is the largest machine ever built using Intel's 64-bit architecture.

"With this machine, PNNL is providing a balanced architecture that is designed specifically for environmental, chemical and biological sciences and the priorities of DOE's Office of Science,"; said PNNL Director Len Peters. "The laboratory led the supercomputer industry by ordering one of the first large cluster systems in 1996, and has once again demonstrated that an investment in mission-focused computing can open new scientific frontiers. We're pleased we could partner with HP on such an accomplishment."

PNNL's supercomputer draws its speed and computing power from nearly 2,000 next-generation Intel® Itanium®-2 processors code-named "Madison," running on industry-standard HP Integrity servers. Linking the Intel Itanium2 chips is a Quadrics interconnect that provides communication between processors and allows scientists to sustain a high performance level. HP is providing services to customers that help manage, deploy and enhance the power and ability of supercomputing.

"HP and PNNL are working together to create next-generation technical computing solutions that will support some of the world's most important scientific research," said Martin Fink, vice president of Linux, HP Enterprise Servers and Storage. "The world's fastest Linux supercomputer runs on industry-standard HP platforms and the recently unveiled Madison processor, and was created by a joint effort between PNNL and the many hardware, software and services professionals within the HP organization."

The PNNL supercomputer is housed in the Molecular Science Computing Facility of the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE scientific user facility located at PNNL. As such, scientists from around the country can access the supercomputer for research through a competitive proposal process. The new capability will enable scientists to solve scientific problems that are more complex and do so more quickly than other architectures.

According to Scott Studham, who manages computer operations within the MSCF, "We chose the HP system during our competitive procurement process because its overall system balance was best tailored to the needs of the complex computational chemistry done at PNNL. The additional power and speed will enable novel studies in atmospheric chemistry, systems biology, catalysis and materials science."

Proposals to use the supercomputer can be submitted through a process outlined at http://www.emsl.pnl.gov/using-emsl/. Business inquiries on PNNL research and technologies should be directed to 1-888-375-PNNL or e-mail: inquiry@pnl.gov.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a Department of Energy Office of Science facility that is gaining new knowledge through fundamental research and providing science-based solutions to some of the nation's most pressing challenges in national security, energy and environmental quality. The laboratory employs more than 3,800 scientists, engineers, technicians and support staff, and has an annual budget of nearly $600 million. Battelle, based in Columbus, Ohio, has operated PNNL since its inception in 1965 for the federal government.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the nation, manages 10 world-class national laboratories and builds and operates some of the nation's most advanced research and development user facilities. More information about the Office of Science is available at www.science.doe.gov.


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1 posted on 08/28/2003 6:06:58 AM PDT by justlurking
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To: justlurking
Photos of the system:

http://www.pnl.gov/news/2003/03-33_photos.htm

2 posted on 08/28/2003 6:33:43 AM PDT by justlurking
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To: Socraticus
ping
3 posted on 08/28/2003 6:40:07 AM PDT by Mrs Zip
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To: justlurking
Heh. Some of those pictures remind me of an old AS/400 F95 that I used to "own".
4 posted on 08/28/2003 6:40:11 AM PDT by TechJunkYard (this post not reviewed by IBM Legal Dept.)
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To: justlurking
I wonder how much power it takes to run it.
5 posted on 08/28/2003 6:43:08 AM PDT by biblewonk (Spose to be a Chrisssssssstian)
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To: Bush2000; Golden Eagle; TheEngineer
The Coral Snake Ping.

Calling all Anti Commies and Anti Pirates

The government should have done this when

More open to the world idiocy from the folks of the DOA and the "Free Software" movement!!!



6 posted on 08/28/2003 11:50:10 AM PDT by Coral Snake (Biting commies, crooks, traitors, islamofascists and any other type of Anti American)
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Linux users - Ignore the trolls. They are baiting you.
 
Rockin' on without Microsoft
      Posted by Coral Snake to Bush2000; Golden Eagle; TheEngineer
On News/Activism 08/22/2003 1:22 AM CDT #278 of 346

I have been studying all the tech threads that we have been involved with since I started posting here and have determined that there is more than flame wars going on against us. These Linux trolls have now gone NUCLEAR and are now using the moderators against us in an attempt to get us banned on Free Republic.

Their stratagy seems to be to use either FR posting policy
banned profanity or personal attacks against us and getting us to respond with our own garbage so they can sic the moderators on US.

I am proposing that we now go nuclear also. Rather than responding to any further profanity or personal attacks by these Linux blowhards WE should be the first one to the ReportAbuse button when they occur, in effect either shutting them up or getting THEM banned on FR instead.

This message is being sent to The Members of the Coral Snake Ping list ONLY and should not be repeated over regular FR channels. The Linux troll justlurking made
a BIG mistake when he threatened that we would be history
on FR. In war you DO NOT blab your stratagy to the planet.
Because he did I can now propose this identical preemtive
counter stratagy against THEM.


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7 posted on 08/28/2003 12:18:14 PM PDT by shadowman99
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To: shadowman99
Sorry Penguin BOTS:

That stratagy has been abandoned for a new one that I gave the members of my ping list through FReep Mail as this one was intended to be given. You only posted some DEAD intellegence, Typical.
8 posted on 08/28/2003 12:59:03 PM PDT by Coral Snake (Biting commies, crooks, traitors, islamofascists and any other type of Anti American)
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To: shadowman99
Sorry Penguin BOTS:

That stratagy has been abandoned for a new one that I gave the members of my ping list through FReep Mail as this one was intended to be given. You only posted some DEAD intellegence, Typical.
9 posted on 08/28/2003 1:01:03 PM PDT by Coral Snake (Biting commies, crooks, traitors, islamofascists and any other type of Anti American)
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To: rdb3
ping em
10 posted on 08/28/2003 1:04:12 PM PDT by stainlessbanner (First they ignored us then they laughed at us and now they think they can debate with us)
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To: Coral Snake
Wow... you guys need a "strategy" for posting your anti-Linux diatribes? Silly me, I just offer my opinions when I think they're relevant (or amusing)...
11 posted on 08/28/2003 1:06:00 PM PDT by kevkrom (This tag line for rent)
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To: kevkrom
It's a "stratagy", kevkrom.
12 posted on 08/28/2003 1:13:02 PM PDT by stainlessbanner (First they ignored us then they laughed at us and now they think they can debate with us)
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To: justlurking
Interesting post. We are due to receive our Itanium2 nodes soon. Of course, we're not even getting a 20th of this cluster. Out of the three vendors we compared, HP, IBM, and SGI, Hewlett-Packard had the best Itanium2 nodes. This isn't to say that the SGI and IBM nodes were bad, just that the HP ones seemed to have the best memory performance. HP has had a lot of experience with Merced and Itanium1, and it shows.
13 posted on 08/28/2003 1:13:14 PM PDT by Liberal Classic (Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.)
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At the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, this new supercomputer operates 9,200 times faster than a PC.

14 posted on 08/28/2003 1:15:05 PM PDT by stainlessbanner (First they ignored us then they laughed at us and now they think they can debate with us)
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To: kevkrom
No we don't need a stratagy to post against Linux or the GPL. The whole anarchistic "herding cats" development model behind it and the GPL having a communistic "poison pill" provision to protect it when BSD does not more than speak for themselves. The stratagy is only for dealing with penguin bot trolls who attack our exposes.
15 posted on 08/28/2003 1:20:19 PM PDT by Coral Snake (Biting commies, crooks, traitors, islamofascists and any other type of Anti American)
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To: John Robinson; B Knotts; stainlessbanner; TechJunkYard; ShadowAce; Knitebane; AppyPappy; jae471; ...
The Penguin Ping.

Wanna be Penguified? Just holla!

Got root?

16 posted on 08/28/2003 1:37:59 PM PDT by rdb3 (They've read all the books but they can't find the answers...)
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To: Liberal Classic
This isn't to say that the SGI and IBM nodes were bad, just that the HP ones seemed to have the best memory performance.

That's because HP acquired Convex back in 1995. The former Convex engineers showed them how to design a scalable memory system.

17 posted on 08/28/2003 1:51:01 PM PDT by justlurking
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To: justlurking
I think this article de-emphasizes the potential drawbacks of the PNNL approach. For example, what overall good is a supercomputer which can be programmed only for the sciences mentioned in the article? A better approach might be a more generic application target, especially considering the expense involved.

What is the expense? That is not explicit.

What in particular characterizes this supercomputer versus others? Hint: it uses 64 bit processors... very nice, very sexy, but relatively expensive to procure and maintain. Why not P-4s with hyperthreading? It costs a lot of money to be on the bleeding edge...

It's interesting that the Quadrics interconnect (in this case) might not be "fast enough" to keep up with the output of the individual processor nodes...

18 posted on 08/28/2003 1:52:24 PM PDT by SteveH
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To: SteveH
There's not a lot of technical information in this article, but it's probably safe to say that the cluster is at least partly relying on PVM or MPI to distribute the application. It's enormously expensive to build a large parallel machine with a single shared memory, so techniques have been developed to partition applications into pieces that can be processed independently without significant interconnect bandwidth. There are a lot of applications that can be distributed in this manner. Environmental and molecular science is just a subset of them.

The new 64-bit processors (Itanium and AMD's Hammer) have two important features that can't be duplicated with the P4: more registers and a larger addressable virtual memory space. The former results in faster code (presuming a compiler that knows how to use it), because more data can be retained in registers without accessing memory and/or thrashing the cache. The latter makes it easier (and faster) to tackle large problems without bumping up against the process virtual memory limit in the P4 (and other 32-bit processors), requiring creative techniques to manage the data.

19 posted on 08/28/2003 2:35:56 PM PDT by justlurking
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To: biblewonk
I wonder how much power it takes to run it.

No problemo. They've got their own nuclear reactors just up the road at Hanford.

20 posted on 08/28/2003 2:55:46 PM PDT by Redcloak (All work and no FReep makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no FReep make s Jack a dul boy. Allwork an)
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