NASA Installs Linux Supercomputer

unassimilatible writes: "Federal Computer Week reports that NASA plans to study the ocean's future with the help of the world's first supercomputer of its kind to run on the Linux operating system. The new supercomputer -- an SGI AltixT 3000 single-system image supercomputer -- has been installed at the space agency's Ames Research Center in California."

Comments

Uh-oh...

[Hanzie]

The article explicitly says they're using NUMA archeticture.

Obviously, it's running SCO's intellectual property. SGI doesn't really own NUMA, they only wrote it. Deep down, it's really a derivative of vi.

Altix

[Preach the Good Word]

SGI's Altix handles up to 64 processors on a Linux kernel using the patches they release as opensource. As SGI hacks away at their bigmem and numa patches, they'll be able to handle more and more processors. The plan is to eventually graft enough IRIX technology to support just as many processors on Altix as they do with MIPS processors in Origin with IRIX.

Even if you aren't a fan of Itanium2, Linux, or NUMA, these patches are bringing some nifty high-end tech to the free software arena.

Re:Altix

[Anonymous Coward]

The only IRIX technology they're grafting is the SCSI layer. With the 2.6 kernel, there really isn't that much they need to do. They're testing their 512 processor systems on linux 2.6 as we speak, btw.

Re:Altix

[GooberToo]

Tons and tons of work has gone into 2.6 to make it fully NUMA aware and scalable. Last I heard, there were still some minor memory allocation node biases left in the scheduler, however, those are actively being worked on. Furthermore, they were considered corner cases and not general NUMA processing problem domains.

IIRC, one or more the developers has a 128 (or larger, I forget) CPU NUMA system that 2.6 periodically gets tested against. Many smaller NUMA systems are commonly used by several others. It seems that many, but not all of the NUMA optimizations, also help SMP systems as well. As such, the developers have not been shy about embracing it. When the O(1) scheduler was writen, it was a very short period of time before they started adding HT and NUMA optimizations to it.

Re:Ocean? NASA?

[javiercero]

Fluid dynamics and environmental studies are also part of NASA's research mission.

NASA was going to roll this out earlier...

[AvantLegion]

... but their copy of Mandrake 9.2 broke their supercomputer's LG CD-ROM drive.

Re:Patches ?

[BJH]

Don't know if this is what SGI is using, but the status of NUMA in the kernel and associated patches for it is shown here.

In other news.....

[micaiah]

SCO sues Nasa for using Linux.

Darl McBride stated yesturday, "Since Nasa is using Linux we now own the entire universe and are claiming our rightful ownership."

they also have.

[rf0]

A 512 CPU and 1024 CPU IRIX system. The 512 one is referred to as the small one :)

Rus

Not quite "Supercomputing"

[quigonn]

The SGI Altix 3000 is not quite a supercomputer. Our local university got the very first model for production use of the Altix 3000's successor, the Altix 3700, in last April or so, and it made it in the TOP 500 supercomputer list in last June, but it fell out of the current list. And the 3700 is even faster than the 3700, so what's so special about it?

Re:Not quite "Supercomputing"

[Error27]

The thing that is special about the NASA computer is that it is a single image system and not really some cluster type thing. Mostly people say that Linux 2.4 scales well up to 8 processors, but this system has 256 processors.

SGI is working on scaling the kernel to even more processors. For example, Erik Jacobson from SGI recently noticed that 'cat /proc/interrupts' doesn't work if you have 512 CPUs in your system. Frankly when I saw that I thought it was a joke, but I guess it must be real if they already have paying customers.

Bad Influence

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't using a supercomputer that has hundreds of very hot processors to simulate climatic change going to directly cause a change in the climet be ejecting large quantities of hot air?

Re:Ocean? NASA?

[IvyMike]

To quote one of the articles:

"Using the vantage point of space, NASA gains an understanding of our home planet that we could never achieve were we bound to the Earth's surface," notes Dr. Ghassem R. Asrar, associate administrator of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. NASA's remarkable 45-year history and vast scientific and engineering resources have helped the agency launch numerous research missions to understand and protect planet Earth.

Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Nice to see SGI still making sales

[Space cowboy]

... I have something of a soft-spot for SGI, and it's nice to see them still making high-profile sales - it'll do their government profile no end of good :-)

512 processors running a single image is pretty cool :-))

Simon

Almost but not quite...

[Powercntrl]

Don't hit the post button if your joke requires a life support system such as:

"oh, never mind"
Printed backspace symbols^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcharacters
...pause (Think about it longer, you'll find a new way to make an old joke funny!)
A comment relating to the moderation system or karma
Rehashing all your old Slashdot memes are belong to Natalie Portman's hot grits in Soviet Russia goatse.cx posts YOU!
Using any form of Slashdot cliche as an attempt at humor
Ending your post with @^T#G@#YHB^#@$NO CARRIER

This new supercomputer has paid off already...

[Anonymous Coward]

... as it has completed it's simulation of the ocean in order to predict it's future:

cold and wet.

Re:How is this "News" for nerds?

[Styx]

It isn't a beowulf cluster.

It uses a single system image for all processors, as opposed to a beowulf, which has separate system images for all cluster nodes.