Shell and the World's largest Linux Supercomputer

thefullmonty writes "Yahoo! News is reporting that Royal Dutch/Shell is going to install the world's largest Linux supercomputer. Shell's Exploration & Production unit will use the supercomputer, consisting of 1,024 IBM X-Series servers, to run seismic and other geophysical applications in its search for more oil and gas. The article goes on to talk about how larger companies are moving towards Linux and some of the advantages of making such a move. ."

Comments

Penguins Trapped in OIL

[thinthief]

Okay, so the oil co.s can use The Penguin to find ways to destroy the habitats of penguins.

Yea, but will it...

[the_tsi]

...run Linux?

Oh, wait, yeah, I guess it will.

Doh.

Well, picture a Beow... err... nevermind.

-Chris
...More Powerful than Otto Preminger...

I know!

[talks_to_birds]

Let's digress for a moment and talk about how *crappy* the article on Yahoo! is..

I mean:

"Linux..., the free computer operating system..."

Free? Open-source, maybe, but without cost?

"Data collected in Shell exploration surveys will be fed into the computer, which will then analyze it."

And this is remarkable how? (I hope noone gets bitten when the computer gets fed...)

"Linux, developed by the Fin Linus Torvalds and a group of volunteers on the Web..."

Of course, there is *only* "the Web". The Internet is "the Web" -- I keep forgetting.

(hmm.. I thought most of the work on Linux was done through maillists, but I could be wrong..)

Anyway..

"...as a flexible alternative to licensed software systems such as Microsoft's Windows or the Unix platforms..."

uh.. Well. If you say so. It's on "the Web" so it must be true.

"...indicate that Linux usage is becoming more versatile, with the operating system moving into many different applications..."

An operating system "moving into applications" -- isn't this what got Micro$oft into trouble?

Or was that moving applications into the operating system? I forget..

Anyway, good job Yahoo!

t_t_b
--
I think not; therefore I ain't®

Does it say they're gonna use java?

[AntiPasto]

I heard of some gas stations watering-down their gasoline, but I didn't know they were going start putting coffee in my tank...

----

TCO

[bdavenport]

the one part that stood out to me was this line:

With Linux companies can quickly add or remove computers without worrying about licenses for the operating software.

i know it has been debated that some companies think MS is better for lower TCO b/c of their huge programming staff and vast CS minions, but it appears that Royal Dutch/Shell is leaning towards proving Linux is more cost effective. a step in the right direction for sure.

Re:cray os

[fgodfrey]

The Cray vector systems back to the X-MP, I think, run something called Unicos. Before Unicos, there was something called COS that I know very little about. On the scalar machines, the T3D,based on Alpha ran almost no OS at all and required a C-90 as a front-end (that's one heck of a front end!). The T3E (also Alpha) ran Unicos/mk, a micro-kernel based version of Unicos (more like a complete re-write, but...). Basically, every processor ran a microkernel and then certain processors were responsible for taking care of the I/O and interactive jobs. The application processors used RPC's to the I/O processors to get data. The big difference between this and a cluster is that all memory on the system is visible to all the processors. I believe that jobs can migrate between CPU's on the T3E. The T3D and T3E are certainly not "clusters" in the sense of the cluster of individual boxes.