Computer Clusters

The idea behind Beowulf is to provide COTS (Commodity Off The Shelf) base systems to satisfy specific computational requirements.

The Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences (CESDIS) was located at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. CESDIS was funded in part by the NASA Earth and Space Sciences (ESS) project.

Part of ESS?s mission was to determine how applicable it would be to apply parallel computers to Earth and Space Science problems. Thus, the first Beowulf was made to handle the large data sets which are frequently used in ESS applications.

Give two current applications for Beowulf clusters (http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/beowulf)

The ASCI Cluster facilitates advancement in virtual test facilities. It deals primarily with small scaling runs, long production runs, and validating code's robustness and/or correctness.

The VizCluster serves to increase the size of images which can be rendered. It does so by combining results from PC?s into a single composite image using Ethernet and a novel pixel bus transfer system.

What type of computers/processors were used in the first Beowulf cluster? What operating system? How were they connected? (http://www.beowulf.org)

The first Beowulf cluster was built with DX4 processors and were connected using 10Mbit/s Ethernet. The machines ran Linux. Since the processors would have been limited by a single Ethernet and Ethernet switches were very expensive a ?channel bonded? Ethernet was created for the operating system whereby all network traffic was spread across multiple Ethernets.

Where is the Brahma Cluster located? What department is the sponsor for this cluster?

The Brahma cluster is located at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. It is sponsored by the Physics department.