http://www.beowulf.org)
– has extended the utility of Linux to the realm of high performance parallel computing.
Additionally, the open source nature of Linux has allowed programmers to add features directly to
the operating system to meet the unique needs of cluster computing. A collection of these
enhancements is now distributed under the name Extreme Linux (http://www.extremelinux.org) — “It’s
Hot and It’s Cool” — by Red Hat Software, Inc. (http://www.redhat.com).
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The free availability, high reliability, and relative efficiency of Linux has
been a boon to computational science in the 1990s, and grows ever-popular with computational
scientists everywhere. Using Linux, scientists have been able to turn off-the-shelf personal
computers into effective UNIX workstations suitable for a number of tasks, including
number-crunching for scientific models. Beowulf-style cluster computing — pioneered by Thomas
Sterling, Donald Becker, and others at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (http://www.beowulf.org)
– has extended the utility of Linux to the realm of high performance parallel computing.
Additionally, the open source nature of Linux has allowed programmers to add features directly to
the operating system to meet the unique needs of cluster computing. A collection of these
enhancements is now distributed under the name Extreme Linux (http://www.extremelinux.org) — “It’s
Hot and It’s Cool” — by Red Hat Software, Inc. (http://www.redhat.com).
These Guys Don’t Like Chairs: Authors Forrest Hoffman (left) and Bill Hargrove prefer lounging on their massive creation, the stone SouperComputer.
The free availability, high reliability, and relative efficiency of Linux has been a boon to computational science in the 1990s, and grows ever-popular with computational scientists everywhere. Using Linux, scientists have been able to turn off-the-shelf personal computers into effective UNIX workstations suitable for a number of tasks, including number-crunching for scientific models. Beowulf-style cluster computing — pioneered by Thomas Sterling, Donald Becker, and others at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (http://www.beowulf.org) — has extended the utility of Linux to the realm of high performance parallel computing. Additionally, the open source nature of Linux has allowed programmers to add features directly to the operating system to meet the unique needs of cluster computing. A collection of these enhancements is now distributed under the name Extreme Linux (http://www.extremelinux.org) — “It’s Hot and It’s Cool” — by Red Hat Software, Inc. (http://www.redhat.com).
We became involved in cluster computing in the summer of 1997 by heading a proposal to fund the construction of a then-large Beowulf-style cluster of new PCs. The proposed cluster would support the development of parallel environmental applications, and would be used for research runs by Oak…
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