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SCD has been working for months to prepare for the arrival of "lightning," a large-scale IBM Linux cluster that will arrive at NCAR the week of 12 July 2004. A small system called "sparky" is already up and running, giving SCD a chance to configure a test platform before deploying the larger machine. SCD's Linux Cluster Team is preparing for the arrival of "lightning," a large-scale Linux cluster coming in July. Front: Dick Valent, David Mitchell, George Fuentes, Gene Harano, Tom Bettge, Janice Kauvar. Back: Marc Genty, Rory Kelly, John Merrill, Tom Engel. Not pictured: Aaron Andersen, Bo Connell, Rich Loft, Gary New, Henry Tufo. The acquisition process began in January with an open Request for Proposal (RFP) that resulted in bids from multiple vendors. After careful evaluation, the RFP's Technical Evaluation Committee and the Business Committee (respectively headed by SCD associate directors Rich Loft and Tom Bettge) selected a 1.1 teraflop system manufactured by IBM. The Linux Cluster Team, comprised of staff from across SCD, is currently preparing the NCAR Computing Room, wiring network connections, building an interface to the Mass Storage System, porting benchmark codes and system administration tools, and developing end-user documentation. Limited friendly user testing has started and will continue through July. The acquisition of the Linux cluster is part of SCD's continued commitment to evaluate attractive high-performance operating systems and architectures. "This system has a high potential for offering the user community a platform that gives great performance at a really good price," Tom observes. Now for the first time, NCAR community modelers will be able to build, test, and evaluate their codes in a production Linux environment similar to what is available in the university community. Linux clusters have become popular, currently dominating the list of the world's Top 500 supercomputers. SCD's Supercomputer Systems Group is hard at work configuring "sparky," the Linux testbed. Front: Pam Gillman, George Fuentes (group head). Back: Jeff Cowan, Michael Oberg, Marc Genty, Irfan Elahi.