NETWORKS

AUSTIN, TX – TACC’s Brooke Carlson reported: Intel will donate state-of-the-art servers, PCs, and network hardware totaling $60,000 in value to the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). This grant is in response to a recent proposal submitted by TACC to the Intel Academic Relations Program. The hardware will be used to improve TACC's advanced IT, network, and security infrastructure. TACC will also use this equipment to build a computational Grid connecting TACC HPC and storage systems at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus to its visualization facility on the main campus and eventually to the resources of UT researchers and other Texas universities. Grid technology seeks to connect multiple computing systems, storage systems, databases, instruments, and displays to enable larger simulations, automated data transfer, workload distribution and scheduling, and real-time collaboration between computational researchers. Standards, protocols, and software for Grid computing are still in their early stages of development, and hardware donated by Intel will be used to improve TACC's Grid development environment by providing: -- two Pentium III Xeon single-processor servers to host Grid services and software such as Globus, Sun Grid Engine, and a Certificate Authority; -- a Pentium III Xeon dual-processor server for development of new Grid technologies and Grid-based web portals; -- Gigabit Ethernet switches and cards to enhance network connectivity so that TACC systems can communicate with each other up to ten times faster than current speeds; and -- a dedicated Pentium III Xeon single-processor server for network services such as domain name service (DNS), time service (NNTP), etc. that is vital to maintain the synchronization necessary for machines connected in a Grid. This new hardware will also be used to improve TACC's existing IT and network services and security infrastructure, including: -- two Xeon-based workstations to provide firewall and gateway services to protect and enhance the TACC networking infrastructure for the HPC and storage systems; and -- a Pentium III Xeon single-processor server for IT software that will enable collaboration in research and education, such as MS Exchange Server and IIS/SharePoint Services for internal staff collaboration. TACC thanks Intel for their generous grant and looks forward to implementing the infrastructure described in this article for the benefit of UT and NPACI researchers. This article can also be found at www.tacc.utexas.edu/general/news/intel_112701.html