ECONOMICS

Aspen Systems, Inc., a leader in the custom design, manufacture and service of a wide array of Linux®-based high performance computing solutions will exhibit a newly released version of ABC Management Software at the Supercomputing (SC) 2003 conference at the Phoenix Civic Plaza Convention Center, November 15-21. Aspen Systems will demonstrate version 2.5 of its ABC Management Software in their booth number 1513 and Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) booth number 2219. Aspen Systems’ ABC Management Software is a turnkey, browser-based software management tool that is critical to the operation of a Linux Beowulf cluster. ABC version 2.5 offers extended capabilities, including a UPS module and a graphing module. The introduction of these new features allows an administrator the ability to install, monitor, and support unlimited UPS devices in a Beowulf cluster, in addition to creating and rendering graphs for system and environmental attributes. A UPS, in general, provides back-up power protection. A UPS in a Beowulf cluster supports increased reliability and availability to devices in the cluster. A UPS in a Beowulf cluster can prevent small or gross utility fluctuations from impacting electrical equipment that might otherwise damage equipment or negatively impact the operation of the cluster. A UPS can methodically shutdown machines in the event of a power outage, anything from a complete blackout to a power sag, surge or spike in voltage. In Beowulf clusters with multiple UPS devices, a single UPS failure can be isolated, and impacted nodes can be autonomously shutdown using ABC version 2.5. High performance computing applications in a Beowulf cluster consume resources. Specific resources include CPU, Memory, and I/O. These resources provide the foundation by which an application can deliver a unit of work. As such, it is helpful, and in many instances necessary, to monitor and track these resources. The resource graphing services in ABC version 2.5 allow cluster administrators to monitor and track these resources and view the recorded data in a historical graph. “Due to customer demand for UPS monitoring and the ability to graph historical data, Aspen Systems has developed ABC 2.5, a streamline software solution for managing Beowulf clusters,” stated Tom Leinberger, VP of Sales at Aspen Systems. “Aspen Systems responsiveness to our customers demands has lead us to improve our ability to develop a turn-key solution that empowers an administrator to manage and monitor all devices within a Linux Beowulf cluster.”