GOVERNMENT

ALBUQUERQUE, NM --The Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories have released to the public a computer software program that enables a collection of off-the-shelf desktop computers to rank among the world's fastest supercomputers. The software program, called CplantTM system software, dramatically extends the capability of researchers to modularly assemble large blocks of off-the-shelf computer components. The rationale behind this open-source release is to allow researchers free access to the body of research and development that created the most scalable, Linux-based, off-the-shelf computer available, says Sandia manager Neil Pundit. The hope, says Pundit, is that modifications and enhancements made by researchers elsewhere will enrich the system software, and that these improvements will be communicated back to Sandia. Cluster of commodity computing and networking components. While other cluster software may run faster, none exceed the Cplant system software's ability to help off-the-shelf processors work together in large numbers. Sandia's Cplant hardware comprises the largest known sets of Linux clusters for parallel computing. These sets are made up of Compaq Alpha processors and Myrinet interconnects. The largest cluster within Cplant comprises more than 1500 Alpha nodes. Cplant system software is modeled after the system software that Sandia developed for the highly successful ASCI Red supercomputer built by Intel and installed at the Labs' Albuquerque site in 1997. For several years, ASCI Red was generally agreed to be the world's fastest computer. The software can be downloaded from the Cplant website at http://www.cs.sandia.gov/cplant. This first open source release of the Cplant system software is named Release 1.0 and totals approximately 43 MB. Requesters must agree to software licensing terms before downloading. — by Neal Singer, Sandia National Laboratories