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LinuxBIOS, BProc-Based Supercomputer For LANL

Posted by timothy on from the yeah-but-what-about-the-neon-lights dept.

An anonymous reader writes "LANL will be receiving a 1024 node (2048 processor) LinuxBIOS/BProc based supercomputer late this year. The story is at this location. This system is unique in Linux cluster terms due to no disks on compute nodes, using LinuxBIOS and Beoboot to accomplish booting, and BProc for job startup and management. It is officially known as the Science Appliance, but is affectionately known as Pink to the team that is building much of it."

1 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. LinuxBIOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder why LinuxBIOS hasn't taken off. I've debated ordering one of their "kits." It seems to me the 3 second boot time of LinuxBIOS should be a selling point for some obscure Linux vendor, but no one really offers it yet.

    I really imagine a machine with an 8MB EEPROM/ROM that can be updated as needed, but provides a boot environment and login screen - while spinning the disks in the background. This would make an excellent product.

    Why hasn't anyone done this yet?

    Curious