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With Linux Clusters, Seeing Is Believing
Roland Piquepaille writes "As the recent release of the last Top500 list reminded us last month, the most powerful computers now are reaching speeds of dozens of teraflops. When these machines run a nuclear simulation or a global climate model for days or weeks, they produce datasets of tens of terabytes. How to visualize, analyze and understand such massive amounts of data? The answer is now obvious: using Linux clusters. In this very long article, "From Seeing to Understanding," Science & Technology Review looks at the technologies used at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), which will host the IBM's BlueGene/L next year. Visualization will be handled by a 128- or 256-node Linux cluster. Each node contains two processors sharing one graphic card. Meanwhile, the EVEREST built by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), has a 35 million pixels screen piloted by a 14-node dual Opteron cluster sending images to 27 projectors. Now that Linux superclusters have almost swallowed the high-end scientific computing market, they're building momentum in the high-end visualization one. The article linked above is 9-page long when printed and contains tons of information. This overview is more focusing on the hardware deployed at these two labs."
Yeah, Linux is the *only* answer when it comes to visualizing these massive amounts of data. I'm sure.
Linux is garbage. I can't believe these companies/organizations are willing to spend so much money implementing a patchwork-quilt/hackjob of an operating system.
Similar benefits? What are you talking about? The article is about visualization!
Is there some reason you feel the need to make off-topic evangelizations left and right? Even more importantly, who the hell modded this informative instead of off-topic? Clearly, this doesn't relate to an article about doing visualizations of supercomputer output.