[Shacs] [Fwd: HPCwire News Flash: World's First Cell-Based Supercomputer]

[Dr. Tim McGuire]

  Thought you all might find this interesting.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: HPCwire News Flash: World's First Cell-Based Supercomputer
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2006 12:20:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: HPCwire <hpcmore at news.hpcwire.com>
To: mcguire at shsu.edu



Tomorrow, Terra Soft will officially announce the construction of the
world's first Cell-based supercomputing cluster.

In the fall of 2005, 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."

Regarding Terra Soft's contribution to the project, Swidler continued,
"In working with Terra Soft, we found a single source for the operating
system, cluster construction tools, and bioinformatics software suite.
Again, their dedication to detail and professional results has surpassed
our expectations. We are very eager for the completion of this initial
phase in order that the research may begin."

Both clusters will run the new Yellow Dog Linux v5.0 operating system; a
beta version of Y-HPC v2.0, the first commercial, cross-architecture
Linux cluster construction suite; the Moab cluster management suite by
Cluster Resources; and Y-Bio v1.1, a suite of gene sequence analysis
tools soon to be optimized for the Cell processor.

Kai Staats, CEO of Terra Soft offers, "Working to complete the cluster
facility has been the highlight of my time in this industry, a truly
gratifying experience. What we have accomplished this spring and summer
showcases the peak of our design, coordination, and engineering effort
... from facility design and construction in July and August to the
cluster build-out in November and December -- our best effort to date."

The final cluster components are to arrive early November with the
cluster slated to be fully operational with the close of the year.

As a guest of IBM at the annual Supercomputing 2006 (SC06) trade show,
Nov 11-17 in Tampa, Terra Soft will showcase Yellow Dog Linux v5.0,
Y-HPC v2.0 beta, and Y-Bio v1.1 on a small cluster of PS3s. More
information about YDL, Y-HPC, and Y-Bio are available at Terra Soft's
website, www.terrasoftsolutions.com.

This story is also available on HPCwire's website at:
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/967146.html




-- 
Timothy J. McGuire, Ph.D.
Department of Computer Science
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, Texas  77341-2090
(936)294-1571	mcguire at shsu.edu	http://www.shsu.edu/~csc_tjm/

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