Argonne National Laboratory, VA Linux Systems and IBM Build Largest
Scalable Linux Test Bed Dedicated to Open Source Software Development
CHICAGO, IL -- November 15, 1999 -- The Department of Energy's Argonne
National Laboratory announced today that it is working with IBM and
VA Linux Systems to build "Chiba City" -- the largest supercomputing
cluster dedicated to highly scalable open source software development.
The 512-CPU Linux cluster will be opened to the U.S. research community,
including universities, laboratories and industry.
The Chiba City Project, conceived by Argonne's Mathematics and Computer
Science Division, will be Argonne's most powerful supercomputer.
The project will help advance the use of state-of-the-art Linux clusters
based on affordable industry standard components in high-performance
computing. The cluster is comprised of 256 2-CPU computational servers
from VA Linux Systems, and IBM Netfinity servers for cluster management,
file storage and visualization.
The Chiba City cluster provides a flexible development environment
for scalable open source software in four key categories: cluster
management, high-performance systems software (file systems, schedulers
and libraries), scientific visualization, and distributed computing.
The construction was planned and managed by engineers from Argonne and
VA Linux Professional Services, with support from VA and IBM's cluster
hardware and software experts. VA Linux also provided cluster management
technology and certified new high-performance Linux drivers for the
gigabit ethernet cards and graphics cards used in the scalable cluster.
The cluster installation was accomplished in a two-day "barn-raising"
event, complete with banjo player. Over fifty Argonne scientists pitched
in to help build the cluster, which links high-performance servers
from VA Linux with advanced hardware from IBM and the latest in network
interconnect hardware.
"The Chiba City barnraising is a great example of the kind of community
spirit that the project will support," said Rémy Evard, manager
of advanced computing and networking in Argonne's Mathematics and
Computer Science Division. "Linux clusters are attractive for their
price/performance, but more importantly, Linux and open source tools
enable our community to work together to tackle large-scale systems
software challenges."
"Argonne's Chiba City is a milestone in large-scale Linux systems design,
and demonstrates the flexibility and scalability of VA's ClusterCity
architecture," said Dr. Larry M. Augustin, president and CEO of VA Linux
Systems. "Chiba City will help advance open source projects such as VACM,
the VA Cluster Manager, and will benefit the community immensely."
"The prospect of building supercomputer-class systems using commercially
available Netfinity servers is an exciting one," said Tom Figgatt, Linux
segment executive, IBM Netfinity Servers. "As demonstrated this week at
Supercomputing '99 in Portland, IBM is working with the nation's premiere
research institutions including Argonne to develop the technologies that
will make this a reality."
The Chiba City effort is sponsored primarily by the U.S. Department of
Energy Office of Science. The project gets its name from the futuristic
"Chiba City" in William Gibson's science fiction novel, Neuromancer.
Chiba City technology will be demonstrated this week at the Argonne
research exhibit at SC99 in Portland, Oregon.
About Argonne National Laboratory
The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne supports basic and applied
scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from
high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990,
Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal
agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific
leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated
by the University of Chicago as part of the U.S. Department of Energy
national laboratory system.
About VA Linux Systems
VA Linux Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of Linux-based solutions,
integrating systems, software and services. VA Linux's broad-based
technical expertise in systems and software design, as well as its
focus on the Linux operating system and other open source solutions,
enables the company to provide high-quality Linux-based systems designed
for optimal performance, reliability and scalability. VA also offers
comprehensive services and support through its staff of Linux system
and software engineers. VA Linux Systems is headquartered in Sunnyvale,
Calif., and is located on the web at
http://www.valinux.com.
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest technology company. Substantial resources
have been committed to supporting Linux on its Netfinity servers
including becoming the first manufacturer to provide telephone-based
ServerStart-up support for Linux -- 24-hours a day, everyday -- in 165
countries throughout the world.
According to "Top500 Supercomputing Sites," IBM supercomputers are
installed in more top universities, government labs, and businesses
than any other vendor. Next year, IBM plans to deliver a supercomputer
capable of up to 10 teraflop performance -- translating to 10 trillion
floating operations per second or more than four times faster than the
fastest computer on the Top500 list today.
Note to editors: Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
VA Linux Systems and ClusterCity are trademarks of VA Linux Systems, Inc.
IBM and Netfinity are registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corp. All other trademarks are property of their respective
owners.
Press Contacts:
David S. Jacque
Argonne National Laboratory
(630)252-5582
info@anl.gov
Donna Sokolsky
For VA Linux Systems
(650)330-0330 x222
donna@sparkpr.com
Paul Herron
For IBM
(202)973-5817
pherron@brodeur.com
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