Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Open Source SpeedShop Project Opened

Posted by timothy on from the big-money-big-money dept.

drjzzz writes "Federal Computer Week reports that the National Nuclear Security Administration of the US Department of Energy is paying about $3 million of a $6.8 million collaboration between Silicon Graphics and the Universities of Maryland and Wisconsin to develop an open-source version of SpeedShop, SGI's performance analysis tools. This will redress what a SGI engineer characterizes as scarce analysis software for Linux. A "Pro" version will also be developed and sold by SGI. Maybe even those of us without access to ASCI White can tweak our boxen to do 3D simulations of complete nuclear detonations, NNSA's main interest. Now that's what I call homeland security and real respect for the spirit of the second amendment."

14 comments

  1. A legit question by Erect+Horsecock · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does SGI have any customers other than the US govt? Everytime they are mentioned in the news it has to do with a branch of the federal government or the military buying a cluster. I know on their website they mention oil/gas research and other scientific fields as customers, but does anybody buy as much sgi gear as Uncle Sam?

    I do have to admit that SGI is the only company that has made me interested in Itanium in any kind of way.

    --
    I hope you die painfully and alone.
    1. Re:A legit question by floydman · · Score: 1



      Actually we are one of the biggrst SGI customers, having over 2K of their SGI workstations, and over 10 clusters each at least 128 nodes.

      I am sorry though i cant tell you the company name (wish i could), but SGI does have a wide customer base from where i stand, and i think they are making good money.

      --
      The lunatic is in my head
    2. Re:A legit question by Erect+Horsecock · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There is no question about the money, they are at least making enough to stay afloat I believe.
      Will your company stay on SGI gear after they kill off MIPS and Irix and go Linux/IA64? Or are you "solution shopping" for the future?

      --
      I hope you die painfully and alone.
    3. Re:A legit question by floydman · · Score: 1

      Actually we do have Linux/IA64 gear from SGI

      --
      The lunatic is in my head
    4. Re:A legit question by presearch · · Score: 2, Funny

      I am sorry though i can't tell you the company name (wish i could)..

      SecurIT Informatique Inc. Montréal, Québec?

      (security is everyone's responsibility)

    5. Re:A legit question by Christopher+Anthony · · Score: 1
      Actually, SGI is not profitable now, although they are doing much better than they were a few years ago. In the last of the MIPS only years they had trouble because they had lost focus and their products didn't have the performance edge they had had before.

      I bet most of their customers are looking forward to the time when they introduce Itanium workstations. According to SGI people, they have MIPS binary compatibility, and the old MIPS programs actually run faster on Itanium processors with a runtime binary translator than they do natively on the fastest MIPS processors.

      --

      ---
      Find out more about the impending downfall o

  2. Probably just more subsidies for SGI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    kinda like the super computer mentioned on Slashdot yesterday....
    The only reason SGI is not out of buisness is they payed off the right congressmen.

    Yippe for the 2nd amendment

  3. Distrobuted computing work by djsmiley · · Score: 1

    Semi off topic but here goes.

    I once did a distrobuted computing project whom wouldn't allow a linux version of their software to be created due to the software people somewhere in the system having such control as that the code could not be shared by a lower company. (Bit weird but stick with me).

    It wasn't nuclear anything, it was cancer research, ~(stick with me some more)~ but still it all comes down to lots of data to process in the end. Distrobuted computing projects do this extrely well (As we all know). And so if they ever need someone to help crunch their data, i hope they dont try and use this excuse to block out the linux (and mac, and os/2 etc etc) comunities from helping man kind!

    --
    - http://www.milkme.co.uk
  4. Lack of nuclears?! by PickyH3D · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I hope that is UWI - Madison, which actually has a nuclear engineering department.

    Much to most of the Slashdot communities pleasure, I am sure, there are not many nuclear engineering schools left.

    This should be developed by one of the nuclear engineering firms, such as AREVA and not a bunch of students, regardless of whether it is to be open source or not (which most code in the nuclear field ends up being that is used like this).

    1. Re:Lack of nuclears?! by Scott7477 · · Score: 1

      After reading the article, it appears that this software would be good for improving the performance of any *nix code rather than being limited to nuclear testing related apps. Theoretically, this could speed up development and improve the quality of all open source apps. Here's a chunk of the press release FYI: "In a joint effort with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to make more sophisticated open-source performance tools available to government laboratories, universities and other researchers, Silicon Graphics (NYSE: SGI) today announced it is developing an open-source version of the SGI® SpeedShop(TM) performance analysis tool. Aimed at accelerating research efforts on Linux® OS-based systems, the NNSA-funded project will provide the evolving open-source community with broad access to SpeedShop that for years has been a staple on IRIX®, the world's most technically advanced UNIX® high-performance computing environment. "Cost-efficient Linux systems are becoming commonplace in the nation's research facilities, but the ecosystem of open-source tools and utilities hasn't matured as rapidly as the operating system itself, and this leaves researchers at a productivity disadvantage," said Thuc Hoang, Path Forward program manager, NNSA. "With the development of an open-source version of SGI's SpeedShop tool, researchers can begin relying on the same class of open-source parallel performance tools that they have used for years in HPC environments. This will ensure that researchers working on Linux systems - not just at the NNSA but throughout the nation and the world - can accelerate their research efforts by continuously optimizing application and system performance," Hoang added. Creating a Linux version of SpeedShop, named Open/SpeedShop, will make it easier for laboratory scientists and researchers to analyze the performance of applications and tasks while eliminating bottlenecks and bugs, maximizing overall application performance, and improving the quality of data and results. SGI is collaborating with the University of Wisconsin and the University of Maryland on the project. "

      --
      "Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
    2. Re:Lack of nuclears?! by PickyH3D · · Score: 1

      huh. Well what do ya know. What was the writer talking about with the linking of the other nuclear related stuff. This has nothing to do with that, excluding the sponsor.

  5. SGI and University by superpulpsicle · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Anytime I hear a company is teaming up with any university to do any project, it just scares me.

    Too many times I hear of stories where students time and effort can't be capitalized. They work just end up counting toward school property.

  6. funny, I would not have said this by oo_waratah · · Score: 1

    "a staple on IRIX®, the world's most technically advanced UNIX® high-performance computing environment."