News Briefs - Hardware:

Microway Delivers Quadputer-Navion For 64-bit HPC Apps

Microway announced the availability of its Quadputer-Navion high-end server. Running either SUSE Linux or Microsoft Windows Server 2003, the platform is ideal for 64-bit compute-intensive applications including CFD, FEA and Oracle. Housed in a newly designed 4U chassis based on Microway's RuggedRack technology, the configuration includes Microway's Nodewatch and MCMS hardware/software management solution for remote cluster monitoring and control.

Quadputer-Navion includes four AMD Opteron processors 800 Series, an 810 Watt redundant, Hot-Swap power supply and up to 18 SATA/IDE, or 5 SCSI Hard drives. The AMD Opteron processors are Models 850 operating at 2.2 GHz and feature HyperTransport technology.

The first implementation is in a cluster purchased with a 2004 ARO/DURIP grant awarded to Professor Perla Balbuena from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University: "It will be used to carry out state-of- the-art ab initio molecular dynamics simulations that permit a greatly improved understanding of chemical reaction mechanisms of catalytic processes taking place in fuel-cell devices."

The low latency, cache coherent HyperTransport technology interconnects between the four processors make it possible to run SMP applications using the OpenMP paradigm, in addition to the standard MPI paradigm. For distributed memory parallel applications, the dual 133 MHz PCI-X slots support a pair of Myrinet or InfiniBand cards in the PCI-X peripheral cage. This enables MPI applications with up to 1.6 GB/sec of bandwidth with 8 microsecond latencies.

The hard drive bay offers maximum storage flexibility for SCSI, SATA or ATA hard drives, accommodating five Hot-Swap 3.5" devices or eighteen Hot-Swap 2.5" devices. Using the 2.5" devices will create an internal RAID system with a total storage of up to 1.36 TB, and this capacity will increase as drive capacity rises.

Microway's 4U RuggedRack features proprietary "Across-the-Board" enhanced cooling. Microway is well known for its expertise in cooling and achieved thermals are consistently lower than industry guidelines. Front-positioned hard disks and power supplies running in Hot-Swap mode allow most system components to be serviced without powering off the server, or removing the unit from the cabinet.

"Microway is delivering their customers a powerful 4P design, based on the AMD Opteron processor," said Pat Patla, director of Server/Workstation business at AMD. "AMD64's Direct Connect Architecture is especially well-suited for scalability of processors; with all four processors on the board directly linked to one another and to memory, we expect Microway's customers to achieve uncompromising performance with the Quadputer-Navion system."

Ann Fried, Chairperson of Microway, stated, "Quadputer-Navion completes Microway's Navion workstation, server, and cluster product line. It offers a first rate platform for demanding enterprise, military and HPC applications. Our engineers designed this platform for scalability, excellent cooling, and robustness. It is also the best price/performance quad AMD Opteron processor- based server on the market today."