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Shell and the World's largest Linux Supercomputer 93

Posted by CmdrTaco from the but-how-many-bogomips dept.
thefullmonty writes "Yahoo! News is reporting that Royal Dutch/Shell is going to install the world's largest Linux supercomputer. Shell's Exploration & Production unit will use the supercomputer, consisting of 1,024 IBM X-Series servers, to run seismic and other geophysical applications in its search for more oil and gas. The article goes on to talk about how larger companies are moving towards Linux and some of the advantages of making such a move. ."
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Shell and the World's largest Linux Supercomputer More

Shell and the World's largest Linux Supercomputer

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  • Re:Largest Linux Supercomputer? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Hmm, and I just read the most Moronic post Supercomputer.
  • Where's the beef?

    A little more detail would be nice.

    We currently run the VERY latest "z" series IBM server with 1100 MIPS and are considering running Linux on it as soon as kernal 2.4 is out of beta.

  • It's not cost, it's *hassle*. If you want to plug in an extra node, you just do it. No need to phone up (insert software vendor) to buy another 'Flexible Licensing Extension Pack' or to sign another contract. And no need to worry about random audits and threats from anti-piracy organizations.
  • There are other clusters that have similar numbers of nodes. Down at Sandia National Labs, they have Cplant Antarctic. It is a Linux cluster of > 1024 nodes and growing. The nodes are Compaq DS10s, which are faster than the Intel nodes the article above talks about. See http://www.sandia.gov/LabNews/LN08-11-00/cplant_st ory.html
  • i work for a Fortune 200 company, we're kinda big but not overwhelmingly huge...we just had a whole gaggle of lawyers pour over our license agreements while our internal IT dept had to assess all of our machines to make sure we were compliant...that all cost $$ that could have gone into my profit sharing!

    anything that makes it easier for us to do our jobs and saves money - double word score. i feel good that Royal Dutch/Shell had to see this too which will add some relevance to the truth that Linux is not the TCO nightmare the MS purports it to be.
  • anything that causes your employees to divert their time and attention from the task at hand is a cost.

    that said, dealing with licensing *is* a royal pain in the ass.

    --
  • Is this REALLY Shell deciding Linux is the end all be all of high powered computing? Or is it just cost effectiveness? Think about it a fucking second, this bad boy is being provided by IBM, IBM also has a little product they like to call AIX. AIX as opposed to Linux has quite the pricetag. IBM has a pretty cheap charge attached to sticking Linux on their big iron. If you want a new big iron box do you really want to shell (teehee) out the big bucks for hardware and high priced OS licenses? No fucking way. I really doubt this has anything to really do with Linux being the best thing since sliced bread and has more to do with it being cheap and working well enough to get the job done.
  • Does anyone know who's providing the software (besides the OS)?
  • Google claims to be running a 4000+ plus Linux cluster(RedHat)... http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-05 -30-022-04-PR I think I remember Google saying that they'll have 10,000 nodes by the end of the year. Even if you're talking processors in this new "Linux Supercomputer" the x330s only takes 2. So now were at 2048... Nice try IBM.
  • Oh, how? By dumping the entire cluster on him? I can't see how else they would use all that hardware to kill somebody...
    --
    Slashdot didn't accept your submission? hackerheaven.org [hackerheaven.org] will!
  • The difference between being able to afford a solution and not being able to is actually hugely important. There's nothing inherently bad about cost effectiveness, especially when the "ideal" solution is so expensive that it's not an option at all.

    So Linux might not be the best there is, but for a lot of applications it's good enough. The interesting point about this story is that Big Business is learning to shop around for what they need, rather than what OS vendors tell them they need.

  • What shell are they using?

    --Joe
    --
    Program Intellivision! [schells.com]
  • ? You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier from Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada. ? Where when what Star League,Xure ..
  • You would be amazed at how many people didn't know the name Sun until they started their StarOffice buy and .COM marketing. Linux being used by a large company for a very niche program won't get as much play as a system being used by a huge retail chain for an application most businesses need.
  • No no, they need the oil to generate power to run the computer to find oil to generate power to run the computer to find oil to generate power to run the computer...
  • Why don't you take a minute to look at who actually wrote this article (Reuters) before blaming Yahoo for seemingly minor technical details. You know, there are people out there who don't know the difference between (gasp!) the WWW and the Internet, or even what an operating system is. That is why mainstream news sites shouldn't need to worry about minor technical details such as the ones you point out.
  • It hurts to see something I love being used to help one of the biggest corporate monsters (for example accused of having hired Nigerian troops to kill peasants because they got in the way) to drain our earth from its last oil resources.

  • but you're just spouting off inaccurate Linux propaganda here

    I don't even use Linux. And I was talking about Windows 9x which, believe it or not, is still a very popular workstation.

    "Free your mind and your ass will follow"

  • Worlds Largest supercomputer? Largest as in
    processing power, or number of boxes? I thought
    Google had the largest cluster!
  • My experience with supercomputers is pretty limited to say the least. But I'm curious let's say you got some time on a Cray, what OS would it be running when you showed up?
  • It's one thing to find oil to run (and make) computers. It's another thing, entirely, to kill people who complain that your methods of exploration and extraction are destroying their environment.

    From their activities in Nigeria (and, I'm sure, elsewhere) Shell is a terrorist organizaion. The question isn't whether you want oil, it's whether you want your oil supply controlled by a terrorist organization.

    (just because they make a profit doesn't mean that they're not a terrorist org. Drug dealers and hitmen make a profit too.)
    `ø,,ø`ø,,ø!

  • Be disgusted, read: about Ken Saro Wiwa [mosopcanada.org] and Shell's recent record [corporatewatch.org]
  • Another myth from Microsoft's page [microsoft.com] whacked. (Free Operating System Does Not Mean Low Total Cost of Ownership) Sheesh. Does anyone have a "Microsoft Myths" page?
  • 1024 computers - Interesting number. a new unit, the Penguin. One Penguin, two Penguins. Anyway M$ will never reach half Penguin...

    According to the text we know know the place of Linus Torvalds in the development of Linux. It occurs he is just a "Fin" of the Penguin... And a group of volunteers on the Web helped him... Yeah Alan Cox upgrading a new patch through a web form...

    Interesting licensed OS they found - UNIX. And it seems Linux is an alternative to it. I wonder how interesting is to be an alternative to itself...

  • The latest biggest Cray machines have all been Alpha clusters probably running some clusterable DU variant.

    I think you mean the T3E [cray.com], and while it's based on Alphas, it's about as far from a cluster as you can get and still have a parallel machine. It also runs UNICOS/mk (a microkernel version of UNICOS), not Digital/Tru64/name-of-the-week Unix.

    --Troy
  • oil is used because you the consumer like your big suv vehicles, your plastic milk jugs, platic coke bottles, etc.

    That's only half of the story. Consumers like that crap partly because it is being presented as cool by the advertising industry. Environmental propaganda in Europe presents these abominations as uncool, and consequently much less demand exists.

    Producers are responsible for what they produce, they cannot eschew their responsibility by saying "but lots of people want to buy it!". Lots of people want to buy child porn.

    --

  • No, its UNICOS/mk on the T3E. Take a look a look at the link for on the UNICOS link above.

    --
  • AFAIK, CPlant at Sandia is ~1600 Alpha nodes and counting. I think one of the genetic research companies has a 1000+ Intel node cluster (although it's used as a job farm rather than for parallel applications, IIRC).

    --Troy

  • Re:Have we created a monster? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    After Mr. AC posted this comment from his mostly-plastic encased PC, which runs on electricity from the (probably) coal-fired power plant, he put on his rubber-soled shoes and hopped in his gas burning, plastic-part-filled auto to hop down to the 7-11 to buy some more Jolt in the plastic bottles. He then returns to his (probably) gas-heated vinyl-clad home to take a hot (probably gas-heated) shower, the water of which probably passes through PVC to get to him.

    Dude, unless you're willing to strike a deal with the Amish to let you into their fold, don't even sit there and preach bullsh*t about ethics.

    Big Oil Companies(tm) are one of the places that Linux is *needed* as they are so very ingrained in the 'old ways' of doing things. Including software, and spending exhorbitant amounts of cash on damn near anything.

    I for one applaud Shell for taking this route.

    (posted anonymously since I'm a part of one of these Big Oil Companies(tm))
  • Actually plastic bottles are better than the glass ones as long as an efficient recycling system exists. In the Scandinavia approximately 90 % of the glass bottles and 80 % of plastic bottles are recycled. Germany might have even higher rates.
  • Seriously, Royal Dutch/Shell have a shitty envirinmental record, and some rather questionable dealings with the gov't of Nigeria. [stanford.edu] Off topic? Maybe, but quite relevant on a larger scale.
  • Just where, pray tell, did I say that we should judgs success as "dominating the technical market?"

    My point, as I thought I made very clearly, and others have said, as well, is that with the acceptance of linux into the mainstream market by such players as IBM, Shell, and Sam Goody, linux as a whole gains momentum and "mindshare" (ugh, marketingspeak) as well as credibility.

    That makes it easier for IT personnell to convince silly management types to use linux as an alternative to OTHER COMMERCIAL OS'ES. This does not necessarily mean M$, but that is something that I would like to see.

    As linux gains support as a desktop/server/research platform, it is valid to assume that it will begin to make a dent in M$'s share of the desktop/server marketplace, as well as other manufacturers big iron OS'es. This, in turn, forces these companies to work to supply better product to maintain their profit. (basic economics, if you can get the same functionality for free, why pay?)

    I guess what I'm saying is that I don't define linux's success as dominating any market. I feel that success will bring more competition and innovation, a-la the Intel-AMD competition (well, maybe not so much innovation.)
  • Yeah, not to mention Shells nasty habit of making their friendly governments (nigria) murd^H^H^H^Hexecute the people in their way. Sure, im just as happy about free software used fort such a big real world computer , but did have to be _shell_ ?
    Shell is basicly the enemy of the world...

    Ok, slight irony, most companies put profit in the first room, but Shell really is extremly nasty.

  • oops, s/nigria/nigeria s/fort/for

  • http://www.essentialaction.org/shell/era/era.html [essentialaction.org]
    Yay linux and all, but lets be careful how much we cheer these guys on....
  • mhhh and i thought i'll get a shell on this bady .... ;-)
  • Like them or hate them, Shell didn't kill Ken Saro-Wiwa. The Nigerian GOVERNMENT killed Ken Saro-Wiwa, ignoring pleas by Shell and the rest of the world to stop it. The former Chairman of the Shell group even sent a personal letter appealing to the Nigerian Head of State to show clemency for Ken on humanitarian grounds to no avail.

    http://www.shellnigeria.com/frame.asp?Page=hr [shellnigeria.com]

    Of course, Greenpeace is known for lying when it wants to. Take the Brent Spar case: "Tests by an independent Norwegian foundation, Det Norske Veritas, disproved claims by Greenpeace that the Spar was a 'toxic timebomb'. Greenpeace later apologized."

    Believe what you want. The facts are on Shell's side, but don't let that stop you.
  • I have a friend that works in graphic design and won't even consider the gimp

    Along with many friends, I too work in graphic design. Most of us have had contact with Linux at some time or another (I played around with GIMP quite a bit last summer) and I've only heard one opinion: Linux is not ready for prime time as a graphics design platform.

    Why? Problems with fonts. A total lack of graphic card support (especially for the ultra-high-end graphics cards). An appaling lack of software. Where I can chose among two excellent vector editing apps on the PC (Freehand and Illustrator) Linux gives me Corel Draw. Corel Draw is crap, it's one of the most unstable and buggy software packages I've ever seen. (The running joke is that we've all been Corel Beta Testers since Corel Draw 3.0 because every release since then has been a beta.) Two 3D modeling packages (as opposed to at least *FOUR* excellent packages on the Wintel platform). GIMP's serious lack of pre-press tools... The list goes on.

    Anyway, I think that Linux is great as far as server/programming stuff goes. Hell, I use it myself - always SSHing into servers, writing PHP scripts.

    But to do graphics professionaly... No. Not gonna do it.

    BTW, as far as stability goes, I've run Photoshops 3.0 -> 5.5 on my NT box and have had something like 10 crashes over the past three *years*. Somehow, that downtime doesn't scare me.

    jedrek


    -- polish ccs mirror [prawda.pl]
  • Add to that the huge volume of chemicals used to make the micro processors that Linux runs on. I believe that this "ethical clause" would simply eliminate the possibility of using Linux on any computer as the creation of computer hardware is massivly damaging to the environment.

    Silicon Valley apparently used to be a fantastic fishing spot but now is barren of fish due to chemical pollution.

    Additionally I would like to point out that the real dangers of the Shell corporation is not the products they create but their activities in African and Asian countries. Ordering the deaths of local activists who oppose Shells presence in their land.

  • I am more impressed with Sam Goody using Linux with Java cash registers than with the large supercomputer. I mean, Sam Goody using it will put Linux more in the public eye, and using a platform for which more Linux people will be developing. Not everyone has an IBM X-series server.
  • ...make me drool on my keyboard this early in the morning!
    ---------
  • Yeah, yeah, that won't be the first time I've heard some tin-plated despot with delusions of godhood making those kinds of noises. Cry havoc, dear Norton, and let slip the dogs of war! Just wake me when you're done.

    And don't try to bribe me to shut up with any of your funny-money. I know where you get your crayons.

  • Penguins Trapped in OIL (Score:5)

    by thinthief ( 13759 ) <slashdot1.overwhelmed@org> on Tuesday December 12, 2000 @06:30AM (#565270) Homepage
    Okay, so the oil co.s can use The Penguin to find ways to destroy the habitats of penguins.
  • Look how much they saved in licensing fees. That alone is reason enough to warrant the project. Talk about immediate ROI.

  • It does my heart good to see the "Mainstream" media (OK, OK, it's only Yahoo, but come on, Joe Schmoe is more likely to read Yahoo than Wired or ZDNet right?) giving linux some good press. Even the purists have to believe that good things will come from the growing big business support that Linux is getting. When people start hearing that IBM, Sam Goodey, and now Shell Oil are using linux, that adds credibility to those of us who've been saying that linux wasw a viable alternative to MS for quite some time now.

    Yes, yes, I think that MS does have its place. I have a Win98 machine on my desk (flame away, I can handle it.) I also have a dual linux machine that acts as my firewall/masq. and I've tried for quite some time to convince people that linux has its place. I have a friend that works in graphic design and won't even consider the gimp on relatively inexpensive hardware (even though he's used it on my boxen and LOVES it) because linux isn't "solid" enough for his business needs. Never mind that he's paying exorbinant(sp?) fees for that badass machine with photoshop etc. etc. and it spends more time crashed in a week than I've ever seen my linux boxen down. Granted it's different service, but still.

    My point is, big companies embracing linux is a good thing for our collective credibility, as well as making it easier for managers to justify spending nothing on OS'es (and therefore more on sysadmins ;> )
  • great news for the "movement" but an overall boring read.

    basic information that we always hear, used here -- used there, developed by, seeing more use, coming of age, the end.
  • a step in the right direction for sure.

    You sure about that? What will happen to all the "zealots" once they figure out "their" OS has become mainstream? There's nothing like living for a cause that all of a sudden turns out to be accomplished...
  • It's only UNICOS on the vector processor machines.
    The latest biggest Cray machines have all been Alpha clusters probably running some clusterable DU variant.

    FP.
  • Rio Tinto Zinc, British Aerospace & McDonnell-Douglas for aiding and abetting the mass-murder in East Timor; Total/Unocal for (allegedly) taking advantage of forced labour provided by the Myanmar government; various international clothing companies for using companies that employ children in appalling conditions in sweatshop factories. The international corporates have a pretty disgraceful record when it comes to human rights abuses.

  • Yea, but will it... (Score:4)

    by the_tsi ( 19767 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2000 @07:34AM (#565277)
    ...run Linux?

    Oh, wait, yeah, I guess it will.

    Doh.

    Well, picture a Beow... err... nevermind.

    -Chris
    ...More Powerful than Otto Preminger...
  • I'll correct myself. Most of them are Unicos, theres now only one non-Unicos Cray. (The rather curvy MTA)
  • Wrong! I would have accepted IG Farben or any of the companies that used to be part of it (BASF, Bayer, etc.). Good guesses though, thanks for playing.

    -nme!
  • How dare you insult my Jewish roots! You are nothing but an anti-semite nazi, who should have been killed for his war crimes long ago. It's people like you that cause all of the hatred, pain, and suffering in this world.
  • If you read the article from IBM... it is the largest _IBM_ cluster...

    http://www.ibm.com/news/2000/12/12.phtml

    Peace out.

  • Well, apparently what corporations look for in a desktop OS is something that is:

    1. A buggy descendant of an 8 bit CP/M clone.
    2. Superficially user-friendly but actually quite opaque.
    3. Almost completely bereft of built-in functionality. No text filters, no remote backup, no shell to speak of, nada.
    4. Unstable.
    5. Heir to a huge collection of bloated and expensive software.
    6. Perpetually increasing system requirements, requiring a hardware upgrade on the client side every 2 or 3 years.
    7. The main supported OS for a buggy and again only superficially user-friendly office suite.

      So, no... I don't think we can convince a fortune 500 that Linux is a viable OS for use on the desktop.



    "Free your mind and your ass will follow"
  • It is part distributed system... if you look at what they are trying to do, you NEED that power...

    Peace out.

  • PS (Score:1)

    by dmatos ( 232892 )
    Thanks for helping me lose karma. I must drop away from karma cap to make my whoring games fun again. However, I found the reaction to my pitiful amateur troll attempt quite humourous. Perhaps I should switch to the dark side of the force.

  • I know! (Score:3)

    by talks_to_birds ( 2488 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2000 @11:47AM (#565285) Homepage Journal
    Let's digress for a moment and talk about how *crappy* the article on Yahoo! is..

    I mean:

    "Linux..., the free computer operating system..."

    Free? Open-source, maybe, but without cost?

    "Data collected in Shell exploration surveys will be fed into the computer, which will then analyze it."

    And this is remarkable how? (I hope noone gets bitten when the computer gets fed...)

    "Linux, developed by the Fin Linus Torvalds and a group of volunteers on the Web..."

    Of course, there is *only* "the Web". The Internet is "the Web" -- I keep forgetting.

    (hmm.. I thought most of the work on Linux was done through maillists, but I could be wrong..)

    Anyway..

    "...as a flexible alternative to licensed software systems such as Microsoft's Windows or the Unix platforms..."

    uh.. Well. If you say so. It's on "the Web" so it must be true.

    "...indicate that Linux usage is becoming more versatile, with the operating system moving into many different applications..."

    An operating system "moving into applications" -- isn't this what got Micro$oft into trouble?

    Or was that moving applications into the operating system? I forget..

    Anyway, good job Yahoo!

    t_t_b
    --
    I think not; therefore I ain't®

  • This is *not* about linux vs MS.

    MS was never in the business of providing OS's for supercomputers.
    This is linux vs commercial unices.

    Forget TCO, think $/flop.
    99% of seismic applications are "embarassingly parallel" - a natural fit for beowolf-type machines. You dont gain much from fancy architectures, so there's no point paying for it.
  • Yeah, and I notice every day what OS is being used as a POS terminal.

    Sam Goody could put a sign up saying "These cash registers are running linux" and most Sam Goody shoppers wouldn't notice.
  • Clearly Linux is better than Windows but I have a few questions directed at Linux OS..... a)Are there certifications for Linux programmers or engineers? b)How can you manage and upgrade 1024 Linux computers? c)Since this clearly underminds the capabilities of Microsoft operating systems i)Is Microsoft going to try its hand at attempting the same feat that IBM did to keep its competition alive as far as supercomputers and Linux vs. Windows is concerned?
  • Yeah, well I have a supercomputer with 2048 Pentium 4s, just wait 'till I get Linux running on that one! BTW, what's a CPUID?
  • Nobody seems to notice that Linux can now become the scapegoat of the next Exxon Valdez spill...frightening, isn't it?

    I am not positive this is a good thing.

  • Does it say they're gonna use java? (Score:3)

    by AntiPasto ( 168263 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2000 @06:33AM (#565292) Journal
    I heard of some gas stations watering-down their gasoline, but I didn't know they were going start putting coffee in my tank...

    ----

  • I'd say you're a little off on a number of your points. Assuming you're comparing NT4 to Linux...

    1. NT4 isn't, in my estimation terribly buggy.
    2. It's not very opaque once you get used to it. In fact, I'd say that this statement applies more to Linux today than it does to NT.
    3. This point is actually a fairly good one. The remote backup point is a little iffy but the others are certainly things that could use improvement on NT.
    4. Blatently inaccurate. NT4 is quite stable as a desktop system.
    5. This isn't the fault of the OS. The key point for companies probably is the 'huge collection' part of your point.
    6. Linux is not really any different here. You won't find people running the latest Linux/Gnome/X11 stuff on a 386 w/ 16MB RAM. The fact that under Linux these are all separate, optional components, does however, allow you to continue to use it on lower-end machines depending on what you're trying to do but you're talking about desktops, and the latest desktop components for Linux are just as memory/cpu hungry as NT4 if not moreso.
    7. I find Office to be mostly user-friendly...it depends what you're used to I suppose. Again, I think you're exaggerating the bugs. It's pretty stable. Although I don't use it a lot it has yet to crash on me (Office 2000).

    Don't get me wrong, I'm not promoting M$ , I use Linux at home...but you're just spouting off inaccurate Linux propaganda here.

  • ...in terms of Linux gaining mindshare (sorry for the buzzword...just came out of a meeting with sales. Yick).

    Hmmm...guess Micro$oft [microsoft.com] is gonna have to update that "Linux Needs Real World Proof Points Rather than Anecdotal Stories" part of it's Linux Myths [microsoft.com] page.

    :)

    --Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
  • my website isn't there to entertain. it is there to keep pictures available. I have an outdated tape/cdr list if you are interested as well.

  • TCO (Score:3)

    by bdavenport ( 78697 ) <spam@sellthekids.com> on Tuesday December 12, 2000 @06:34AM (#565296) Homepage
    the one part that stood out to me was this line:

    With Linux companies can quickly add or remove computers without worrying about licenses for the operating software.

    i know it has been debated that some companies think MS is better for lower TCO b/c of their huge programming staff and vast CS minions, but it appears that Royal Dutch/Shell is leaning towards proving Linux is more cost effective. a step in the right direction for sure.

  • In the other article [planetit.com] about IBM's 1 billion dollar Linux investment, Lou Gerstner (IBM's President) is quoted as saying "Businesses should not settle for proprietary systems".
    Deven Phillips, CISSP
    Network Architect
    Viata Online, Inc.
  • Now I can finally go to my boss and say, "See, Shell is using it to find oil. I think we'll be safe running our webserver on it."

    Hey, now that they are using a free OS maybe gas prices will finally go down.

  • Now, can we convince a fortune 500 that this is a viable OS for use on the desktop?
  • Apparently, (according to the article), "Data collected in Shell exploration surveys will be fed into the computer, which will then analyze it." What an incredible idea! I suppose it will run better then the Micros~1 'equivilent', in which "Data collected in Shell exploration surveys will be fed into the computer, which will then crash." -Peter Sahlstrom I am failing chemistry

  • Many companies have not used Linux for lots of reasons, but not wanting to be the first was definately one reason. Being first screams "risk".

    Now, Shell is setting a "first" in the eye of many uninformed decision makers. Doing this in an environment which has few and very well trained persons working the system makes it relatively "safe", but the example is set anyway: You can use Linux for hassle-free and powerfull computing.

    This is just the marketing the linux-community needs to make the break for Linux in the corporate world!

  • Not a particularly hard claim by Avis. Given the amount of hot grits that get poured down her pants, there is bound to be some residue on the sheets.
  • I think linux being really mainstream would be a dream come true. Becaus its free the bigger it gets, the harder it would be for one company to hoard and abuse because even a huge company like MS wouldn't be able to exscape the neccesity of compatibility. The more people using linux the better I think. It wouldn't mean abuse, it would mean improvement which is not the case with alot of other companies especially Microsoft. So bring it on, it can only make things better.
  • It's called Slashdot [slashdot.org]. That's just one of the advantages of being open source, ANYONE can contribute FUD :)

  • WARNING - goatse.cx link (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Don't follow that link. Who the fuck are these goatse-linking jerks anyhow?

  • Re:cray os (Score:3)

    by fgodfrey ( 116175 ) <fgodfrey@bigw.org> on Tuesday December 12, 2000 @08:11AM (#565306) Homepage
    The Cray vector systems back to the X-MP, I think, run something called Unicos. Before Unicos, there was something called COS that I know very little about. On the scalar machines, the T3D,based on Alpha ran almost no OS at all and required a C-90 as a front-end (that's one heck of a front end!). The T3E (also Alpha) ran Unicos/mk, a micro-kernel based version of Unicos (more like a complete re-write, but...). Basically, every processor ran a microkernel and then certain processors were responsible for taking care of the I/O and interactive jobs. The application processors used RPC's to the I/O processors to get data. The big difference between this and a cluster is that all memory on the system is visible to all the processors. I believe that jobs can migrate between CPU's on the T3E. The T3D and T3E are certainly not "clusters" in the sense of the cluster of individual boxes.

  • Re:TCO (Score:1)

    by rodgerd ( 402 )

    It's already unerway. Or haven't you noticed the stream of lusers running off to the FreeBSD world complaining that Linux isn't k3wl enough for them anymore.

    Doubtless when FreeBSD gets popular (MacOS X), they'll mindlessly scurry off somewhere else, contributing a horde of loudmouthed, unwashed idiots to another operating system. Maybe OpenBSD, but Theo might scare them off.

  • Well, the cluster is being installed by IBM, so I suspect they will supply the software shell wants, which is basically (probably) a compiler (probably Fortran) and an MPI or MPICH library. As for the exploration code, I suspect that Shell writes their own. Most really large supercomputer customers run their own code rather than canned software packages.
  • something i didn't consider.


  • CPlant has 2400 nodes in New Mexico and something like 500 nodes in California. These are Alphas, so for floating point computations, they're 2x as fast as x86 cpus.

    Incyte has 3,000 cpus in their genomics cluster. It runs embarrassingly parallel computations, but they're still parallel.
  • Shell didn't kill Ken Saro-Wiwa. The Nigerian GOVERNMENT killed Ken Saro-Wiwa,...

    How do you think the Nigerian government stays in power?

    Check out this article [princeton.edu].

    The Nigerian government wouldn't stay in power if it wasn't for the revenue generated by shell. Shell may say one thing publicly, but their actions reveal where their best interests lie. It is in Shell's best interest to squelch protesters and prop up the Nigerian government, because it keeps the oil flowing. If you think a company like Shell isn't going to act in their best interests than you're crazy. The best that we can do as consumers of Shell is to raise a big enough stink. We need to shift Shell's best interests away from pumping oil out of Nigeria to recoving its image. Shell is not stupid, they relize that their image affects their bottom line.

  • If you put 77345 into your supercomputer and turn it upside down, it spells SHELL.
  • By what math are Alphas 2x faster than Intel on the FP side, per clock? Last I checked, SpecFP was 3x faster, and my code moves about 5x faster. And if you can fit everything into the mammoth caches, you'll really move flat-out. (Yes, I'm an Alpha evangelist!)

    I tested povray once on my AMD K6-2 450 versus an Alpha 21264 500 I have access to, on a scene that took my old 386 SX-20 a week to render (ah, the good old days). The Alpha finished *20* times faster than the AMD. I think the times were about 12 seconds versus less than 1/2 second, but I really don't remember.

    Even if Intel's chips were twice as fast as the K6-2 chips, that's still 10x worse than the Alpha 21264. It is difficult to explain a 20x speedup. That's why we think it was a matter of cache. Also, the compilers we used, some version of egcc on the AMD and DEC's cc on the Alpha, would of course affect things. But egcs on the AMD is pretty good...

    -Paul Komarek
  • Ovbiously you have noooo clue as to how the world works, oil is always going to be used, it's simply so easy to use, now the thing is that they'd find it either way, now would you rather they emptied all the big ones destrying the landscape there or went and only got half of it and then had to go and destroy so much more landscape in the proccess of getting the little ones?
  • jacked up on Java. *shudder*

  • I can answer a) with a 'yes' - look at the RedHat training & certification program [redhat.com], for instance. I've heard that other distro providers offer something similar, but I've only looked at RedHat so far - maybe I'll take a GNOME programming course and certification myself once I convince my boss that I need that enough to make him cough up the dough.



  • It's nice to hear that Shell is using Linux to run that SuperComputer.

    But to me, my own experience with Shell is HORRIBLE, ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE !

    Shell seems to like to build petrol stations RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO SCHOOLS ! In Malaysia, for instance, Shell constructed a gas station RIGHT NEXT DOOR to a primary school with a student body over ONE THOUSAND CHILDREN !

    Let's not talk about the danger of EXPLOSION which will LEVELED the FOUR-STOREY BUILDING which houses the OVER ONE THOUSAND SCHOOL CHILDREN - even if we talk about the DANGER POSED BY DEADLY CHEMICALS SUCH AS BENZENE AND TOULENE, and the effect these chemicals will have on the CHILDREN, for the children have to ENDURE THE EXPOSURE TO THESE DEADLY CHEMICALS FOR A PERIOD OF SIX FULL YEARS !!

    Malaysia is a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY, a country whereby there is NO LAW preventing construction of potentially DANGEROUS gas station right next to high-density buildings like Office Towers or Hotel or Hospital or Shopping Malls or Schools.

    It happens that Malaysia is situated in the TROPICS, with the temperature CONSTANTLY ABOVE 85 degrees F, which is WAY ABOVE THE BOILING POINT of Benzene, which is 82 degrees F.

    That means, the BENZENE (and other toxic chemicals) would be VAPORIZED into the air in such a hot climate, and the VAPORS will get into the lungs of the school children right NEXT DOOR !

    There were a group of people opposing the building of the gas station right next door to the school building, but Shell DOES NOT CARE and they continue that construction.

    I have NO PROBLEM with Shell making a buck selling gasoline, but I DO HAVE MUCH PROBLEMS when someone, including Shell, want to make bucks WHILE HARMING THE HEALTH AND LIVES OF OVER ONE THOUSAND INNOCENT LITTLE CHILDREN !

    Here's where Shell is constructing the gas station in Malaysia which harms the lives of over one thousand children - It is situated at the Farlim District, in the State Of Penang, Malaysia.

    I have emailed Shell's HQ, and Shell's subsidiary in Malaysia concerning the danger, I've called the Shell's Malaysian officies, I've faxed them, I've written them letters, I've even paid visit trying to meet with Shell's officers in Malaysia, but they JUST DO NOT CARE !

    If there is anyone here know what to do next, I'm all ears. If you have any suggestion, please write to me at knive@newmail.net.

    Thank you.

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