| AirRaidJet@gmail.com 2006-10-09, 7:34 pm |
| http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123201
"IBM is using Cell in the Los Alamos supercomputer, but now SCE is
building its own in conjunction with Terra Soft, with Lawrence
Berkeley, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge lined up as clients. This one also
seems to be using PS3s, at least partially. It's due to be operational
by the end of the year."
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Tomorrow, Terra Soft will officially announce the construction of the
world's first Cell-based supercomputing cluster.
In the fall of '05, Terra Soft was contacted by Sony Computer
Entertainment, Inc. (SCEI) to develop and manage a supercomputing
cluster built upon the IBM Cell Broadband Engine and the Linux OS. This
spring, Terra Soft was contracted by Sony and in August completed the
construction of a 3000 sq-ft supercomputing facility capable of housing
2400 1U systems. In this remodeled extension to the Loveland, Colorado
headquarters, Terra Soft will construct a test cluster and a
substantially larger production cluster, dubbed "E.coli" and "Amoeba"
respectively.
Terra Soft will use the test cluster "E.coli" to conduct advanced
software development, optimization, and testing with emphasis on Y-HPC
and Y-Bio applied to the Cell Broadband Engine. The production cluster
"Amoeba" will be made available to select university and Department of
Energy laboratories to further life sciences research.
The clusters will incorporate, in part, Cell-based PS3 systems. The
Cell Broadband Engine provides a "1 + 8" multi-core processing
environment, enabling optimized code to function at a superior level of
performance over traditional single or dual core CPUs. With all 8 cores
on a single chip, the code processes do not lose performance by
dropping down to the memory bus as with historic, multiple CPU
configurations.
Glen Otero, Director of Life Sciences Research for Terra Soft Solutions
explains, "This cluster represents a two-fold opportunity: to optimize
a suite of open-source life science applications for the Cell
processor; to develop a hands-on community around this world-first
cluster whereby researchers and life science studies at all levels may
benefit. Once up and running with our first labs engaged, we will
expand the community through invitations and referrals, supporting a
growing knowledge base and library of Cell optimized code, open and
available to life science researchers everywhere."
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab is working with Terra Soft to optimize a
suite of life science applications. Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National
Labs are also engaged, with select universities coming on-board early
in 2007. Terra Soft is working to optimize the entire Y-Bio
bioinformatics suite.
Thomas Swidler, Sr. Director of Research & Development at SCEI states,
"This cluster is for Sony a means of demonstrating the diversity of the
PS3, taking it well beyond the traditional role of a game box. While we
are not in the business of competing for the Top500.org nor building
cluster components, this creative use of the PS3 beta systems enables
Sony to support a level of real world research that may produce very
positive, beneficial results."
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http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/967146.html
http://grids.itmanagersjournal.com/...09.shtml?tid=66
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