Cluster Computing:

ARGONNE LAB DEPLOYS NEW ETHERNET SWITCH FOR CLUSTER

Force10 Networks, Inc. announced that Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, IL) has successfully deployed Force10 E-Series switch/routers to connect to the TeraGrid, the world's largest supercomputing grid, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Argonne joins several other grid computing facilities that use Force10 equipment, including the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC), and the Center for Advanced Computing Research (CACR) at the California Institute of Technology.

"We designed E-series Ethernet switch/router for performance-sensitive market segments such as grid/clusters and next generation data centers," said Marc Randall, CEO and President, Force10 Networks. "In a grid/cluster, it is critical that the network fabric, which interconnects all the computing and storage resources, is not the choke point. I am glad that Force10 successfully addressed Argonne National Laboratory's performance-demanding requirements of the switch fabric for their supercomputing cluster."

Argonne National Laboratory and other research facilities are driving the creation of cluster grid computing, the next IT revolution. Ultimately, computational grids will allow users to access enormous 'virtual supercomputers' -- computers at different locations linked together to work as one -- that will provide CPU cycles on demand. The NSF TeraGrid project will initially use a dedicated 40Gbps wide area "backplane" to connect computers, storage facilities, visualization systems and applications at Argonne and other TeraGrid sites, creating the largest, most comprehensive grid-computing environment for open scientific research in the United States. Clusters connected over this grid use 10-Gigabit Ethernet interconnections between Gigabit Ethernet-attached Linux server clusters.

"Performance and scalability are the most important requirements for our clusters," said Linda Winkler, TeraGrid network architect, Argonne National Laboratory. "The Force10 E-Series has the density and non- blocking performance needed to interconnect the Linux servers in our cluster today, as well as the scalability to support thousands of servers in the future."