High Performance Computing Beowulf

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High Performance Computing Beowulf

• Robert Whitten Jr

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Welcome!

• Todays Agenda
• Beowulf

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Pop Quiz

• What is a beowulf cluster?
• What are the advantages of a beowulf cluster?
• What are the disadvantages of a beowulf cluster?
• How would you create a beowulf cluster?

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What is beowulf?

• Mythical Old-English hero who defeats Grendel,
  the green dragon
• Movie starring a CG-animated Angelina Jolie
• Cluster architecture

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Beowulf cluster history

• 1993 - Becker Sterling started Beowulf project
• 1994 Becker Sterling constructed a 16 node
  cluster
• 1996 DOE and NASA demonstrate beowulf cluster
  that surpasses 1GFlop/s
• 1997 Caltech demonstrates beowulf cluster that
  surpasses 10GFlop/s
• Present beowulf clusters are used at many
  universities, industries, and government sites

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What is a beowulf cluster?

• Collection of stand-alone computer networked
  together
• Network equipment to connect computers
• Software
• Operating system software
• Application software
• Communication software (MPI, OpenMP)

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Hardware

• Any old computer will do
• Laptops
• Desktops
• Playstation 3s ??
• Network
• Switches / hubs
• Cable
• Ethernet adapters (most computer already have
  this, including the PS3)

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Software

• Operating system software
• Usually Linux-based
• Typically has all the software pieces needed
• Microsoft does have Windows for clusters
• Application software
• Not many commercial applications are parallel
• Usually custom built applications
• Something like homework 3
• Communication software
• MPI or OpenMP or something else

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Questions?
http//www.nccs.gov
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
U. S. Department Of Energy 9