Linux Parallel Processing Sites

Prof. Hank Dietz
Purdue University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
hankd@ecn.purdue.edu
Last update: 23 March 1998

This hypertext document is intended to provide photographs, descriptions, and contact information for the various sites using Linux systems for parallel processing. Each parallel system is listed in approximate reverse chronological order, i.e., the system that became operational most recently is listed first. To have information about your site posted here:


School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Purdue University

Date System Became Operational
January 1998
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
32 (+2 spare) RedHat Linux 5.0 machines connected by both PAPERS and 100 Mb/s Ethernet networks
Hardware Configuration
32 (+2 spare) identical Dell Pentium II 300 MHz, 128M RAM, 8.4 GB disk, 100 Mb/s Ethernet, STB Velocity 128 4 MB video, and OPL3 audio. All machines are linked directly by PAPERS, and are linked as four 100 Mb/s Ethernet hubs connected by a 100 Mb/s switch which also provides connection to the outside world. 16 (+2 spare) 20" Sony monitors are arranged as a 6,400x4,800 pixel video wall.
Primary Use Of System
This cluster is the primary PAPERS cluster at Purdue, used mostly for PAPERS software development. It is being used extensively for computational video wall work, and will also be used for 3D audio.
Project URL
http://garage.ecn.purdue.edu/~papers
Contact Information
Email to hankd@ecn.purdue.edu, phone (765) 494 3357

[Photo not yet available]

Institute of Astronomy
National Central University, Taiwan

Date System Became Operational
January 1998
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
8 RedHat Alpha Linux machines and one Pentium Pro connected by 100 Mb/s Ethernet
Hardware Configuration
Eight identical DEC Alpha 21164/533MHz, PC164LX Motherboard, 128MB SDRAM, 2GB EIDE HD, Accton 100Mbps Ethernet. One Intel Pentium Pro200, 128MB EDO RAM, 4GB SCSI HD, two 4-channel 100Mbps Ethernet (Adaptec AHA2944A/TX), 3Com 590.
Primary Use Of System
Studying the interaction between the galactic disk and dark matter halo. Currently using PVM to implement a Barnes-Hut tree code.
Project URL
http://aswww.phy.ncu.edu.tw/ppcs/dpac/dpac.htm
Contact Information
Email to d832002@joule.phy.ncu.edu.tw


Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing

Date System Became Operational
Spring 1997
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
10 Siemens-Nixdorf PCs running SuSe Linux connected via SCI (Scalable Coherent Interface)
Hardware Configuration
Heterogenous cluster with 24 processors (4 PentiumII 300 MHz, 20 PentiumPro 200 Mhz), RAM from 64 MB to 256 MB, Dolphin PCI/SCI adapter cards (LC-2: 500 MByte/s), Dolphin 4-port LC-1 switch, FastEthernet backup-network.
Primary Use Of System
Scientific applications with MPI and PVM, development of the SCI-Driver for Linux.
Project URL
http://www.uni-paderborn.de/pc2/systems/sci/psc0.htm
Notes
Also operate a 64-processor PentiumII cluster running Solaris.
Contact Information
Email to Oliver Heinz, heinz@uni-paderborn.de


Numerical Aerospace Simulation Facility
NASA Ames Research Center

Date System Became Operational
April 1997
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
28 Linux machines connected by 100 Mb/s Ethernet
Hardware Configuration
27 identical Pentium Pro 200, 128MB RAM, 2.5GB disk, Cogent AHA-6911/TX Ethernet; 1 "server" Pentium Pro 200, 128MB RAM, 6.5GB disk, Cogent AHA-6911/TX Ethernet, SMC 9333BDT Ethernet; 2 stacked 16-port Netgear 100BaseT hubs testing routed interconnect topologies and switches
Primary Use Of System
Scalable systems software development to support aerospace research. The supported parallel programing environment is FORTRAN or C with MPI.
Project URL
http://parallel.nas.nasa.gov/Parallel/Projects/Whitney
Contact Information
Email to fineberg@nas.nasa.gov, phone (415) 604 4319

[Photo not available; formerly at http://bb.ag1.mpi-sb.mpg.de/animalfarm.jpg]

Max-Planck-Institut fuer Informatik
Saarbruecken

Date System Became Operational
January 1997
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
16 Linux machines connected by a mesh of 100Mbps ethernet point-to- point-links
Hardware Configuration
16 identical nodes (PPro 200 MHz, 2GB EIDE HDD, 128MB RAM, 4 x 100Mbps NIC [3C905], 1 x 10Mbps NIC [3C509]) one server (dual PPro 180 MHz, 256 MB RAM, 12GB SCSI HDDs)
Primary Use Of System
Compute server for scientific applications (computational chemistry, bioinformatics)
Project URL
http://bb.ag1.mpi-sb.mpg.de/


University Koblenz-Landau
Institute of Physics
(The ZUSE Parallel PentiumPro Cluster)

Date System Became Operational
December 1996
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
33 Linux machines connected by 100 Mb/s Ethernet
Hardware Configuration
32 identical PentiumPro 200 Mhz, 256 KB 2. Level Cache, 32 MB Memory, 1.0 GB SCSI Disk, SMC EtherPower 10/100 8 Linux machines in one Rack connected by 100 Mb/s Ethernet hub 4 Racks connected by 100 Mb/s Ethernet Switch; 1 Linux machine configured as Gateway connected to the 100 Mb/s Ethernet Switch, PentiumPro 200 Mhz, 256 KB 2. Level Cache, 98 MB Memory, 4.0 GB SCSI Disk, SMC EtherPower 10/100, Frame Grabber, CD-Writer, 20" Sony Monitor
Primary Use Of System
Design of Neural Networks by Genetic Algorithms; Applications of Neural Networks; Chaotic systems; Artificial Life
Project URL
http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~schiff/zuse.html
Contact Information
Email to Merten Joost evol@informatik.uni-koblenz.de, Wolframm Schiffman schiff@informatik.uni-koblenz.de, or Deltev Nolte dnolte@informatik.uni-koblenz.de; phone +49 261-9119-353


School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Purdue University

Date System Became Operational
November 1996
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
16 Linux machines connected by five PAPERS 960801 modules
Hardware Configuration
Eight identical IBM 386DX25 PS2 Model 70, 4M RAM, 250M disk, VGA display; eight identical Intel 386DX33, 8M RAM, 250M disk, Ethernet, VGA display; 4x4 monitor VGA display array
Primary Use Of System
To prove that the field-scalable PAPERS 960801 design really works and to develop/test software, including PEN (the PAPERS ENvironment that serves as a meta-OS across the Linux systems). The 386DX25 PS2 systems are too slow for much beyond driving the VGA video wall for demos and some scientific visualization.
Project URL
http://garage.ecn.purdue.edu/~papers
Contact Information
Email to hankd@ecn.purdue.edu, phone (765) 494 3357

[Photo not yet available]

DISI, Universita' di Genova, Italy

Date System Became Operational
September 27, 1996
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
12 Linux machines connected by 100 Mb/s Ethernet hub
Hardware Configuration
Twelve identical Pentium 133 Mhz, 128 KB Pipelined Cache, 32 MB Memory, 1.2 GB Disk, 3Com 3c590 10Base2 Ethernet, 3Com 3c595 100BaseTX Ethernet; 12-way 100Mb/s Ethernet hub
Primary Use Of System
Both as a set of autonomous workstations for students and as a parallel platform called the Genoa Active Message MAchine (GAMMA).
Project URL
http://www.disi.unige.it/project/gamma/
Contact Information
Email to Giovanni Chiola (chiola@disi.unige.it) or Giuseppe Ciaccio (ciaccio@disi.unige.it)


Mannheim University, Mannheim, Germany

Date System Became Operational
August 1996
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
10 Linux machines connected by 10 Mb/s Ethernet (upgrade to switched 10 Mb/s planned for October).
Hardware Configuration
Nine identical dual-pentium 133 Mhz, 512 KB Pipelined Burst Cache, 32 MB Memory, PCI SCSI Controler (NCR Chip), 1 GB local SCSI Harddrive, PCI 10Mb/s Ethernet (SMC Etherpower); the tenth machine has the same configuration plus 2MB PCI SVGA, 17" Monitor, 4x CDROM, Exabyte Tapestreamer, and a second 1 GB disc.
Primary Use Of System
Low-cost replacement for our earlier KSR1/2 parallel computers. Continuation of our educational and research work on parallel and distributed computing. Mainly using Pthreads and PVM for parallel programming. Investigation of low-cost, high-performance interconnection hardware and software. Research on distributed Web Services.
Project URL
http://suparum.rz.uni-mannheim.de/ (in German);
http://suparum.rz.uni-mannheim.de/ (in English)
Contact Information
Email to parallel@rz.uni-mannheim.de


Distributed Computing Laboratory,
Department of Mathematical Sciences,
Cameron University, Lawton, OK

Date System Became Operational
January 1996
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
9 Linux machines connected by 100 Mbps Ethernet (upgraded January 1997; upgraded July 1996 to 6 machines; originally 4 machines and 10 Mbps Ethernet)
Hardware Configuration
Nine identical Pentium 100, 64M RAM, 1G disk, 3com 3c595/3c905 PCI 10/100 Ethernet. Linksys 100 Mbps hub. Planned upgrade to two additional machines (probably P6's).
Primary Use Of System
NSF-funded project for development of low-cost parallel computing environment at small universities for research and educational activities. Currently using PVM and MPI (LAM) to facilitate parallel programming.
Project URL
http://www.scinet.prairie.edu
Contact Information
Email to donm@cameron.edu, phone (405) 581-2396

Hub
Cluster

Computer Science,
Cornell University

Date System Became Operational
January 1996
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
4 Linux machines connected by 100 Mbps Ethernet
Hardware Configuration
Pentium 133, 16M RAM, 1G disk, DECChip 21140 Fast Ethernet, SVGA; Pentium 90, 32M RAM, 2G disk, DECChip 21140 Fast Ethernet, SVGA; Pentium 133, 32M RAM, 1G disk, DECChip 21140 Fast Ethernet, SVGA; SMP 2-processor Pentium 133, 64M RAM, 13G disk, DECChip 21140 Fast Ethernet, SVGA; Intel Express 10/100 Hub
Primary Use Of System
This is an experimental set-up for clustered computing using the U-Net interface over Fast Ethernet. The state of the machines of the cluster (and their connectivity) are always in flux: one of the machines participates in the U-Net ATM cluster (along with 12 or so SparcStations). Planned upgrade to a more permanent set-up involving P6 workstations and a Fast Ethernet switch.
Project URL
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/People/mdw/atm/pics/cluster.html
Contact Information
Email to mdw@cs.cornell.edu, phone (607) 255 1008

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Purdue University

Date System Became Operational
November 1995
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
4 Linux machines connected by TTL_PAPERS
Hardware Configuration
Four identical Compaq Aero (Subnotebook) 486SX25, 4M RAM, 170M disk, LCD display
Primary Use Of System
This is a 20-pound portable cluster constructed primarily to bring to conferences, etc., to demonstrate that a PAPERS cluster is capable of fine-grain parallel processing.
Project URL
http://garage.ecn.purdue.edu/~papers
Contact Information
Email to hankd@ecn.purdue.edu, phone (765) 494 3357

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Purdue University

Date System Became Operational
November 1995 (assembled in a different configuration, August 1994)
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
8 Linux machines connected by TTL_PAPERS 951201 and Ethernet
Hardware Configuration
Eight identical Intel 386DX33, 8M RAM, 250M disk, Ethernet, VGA display; 2x4 monitor VGA display array
Primary Use Of System
This system is used primarily for experimental evaluation of the modularly scalable versions of PAPERS, and for development and testing of the support software... especially the VGA display array support.
Project URL
http://garage.ecn.purdue.edu/~papers
Contact Information
Email to hankd@ecn.purdue.edu, phone (765) 494 3357

Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione
ParMa2 Project

Date System Became Operational
September 1995
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
4 Linux machines (or 20, but not permanently) connected by Fast Ethernet
Hardware Configuration
Four Pentium 100, 64M RAM, 1G disk, 512K L2 cache, 1 Fast Ethernet (3c595tx adapter); 12 way Fast Ethernet hub, 17" monitor
Primary Use Of System
The ParMa2 Project is an Operative System approach to the problem of delivering low latency high bandwidth communications for PC clusters running a public domain OS like Linux and connected by standard, off-the-shelf networks like Fast-Ethernet. The Parma2 project has the main goal of designing the new light-weight protocol suite PRP, in order to drastically reduce the software overhead introduced by TCP/IP. PRP wants to offer at high level a stream socket oriented interface and at low level compatibility with any device driver. High level compatibility is crucial in facilitating the porting on PRP of existing applications or message passing packages.
Project URL
http://www.CE.UniPR.IT/pardis/parma2/
Contact Information
Email to pr2staff@CE.UniPR.IT
(This entry was submitted by Massimo Bertozzi)

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Purdue University

Date System Became Operational
July 1995
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
4 Linux machines connected by TTL_PAPERS and Ethernet
Hardware Configuration
Three identical Intel Pentium 90, 32M RAM, 700M disk, Ethernet; Intel Pentium 90, 32M RAM, 700M disk, Ethernet, SVGA
Primary Use Of System
This PAPERS cluster is used primarily for parallel processing benchmark applications. ATM connections will soon be added to investigate using PAPERS to schedule ATM video serving.
Project URL
http://garage.ecn.purdue.edu/~papers
Contact Information
Email to hankd@ecn.purdue.edu, phone (765) 494 3357

TTL_PAPERS
Cluster

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Alabama at Huntsville

Date System Became Operational
May 1995
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
4 Linux machines connected by TTL_PAPERS and Ethernet
Hardware Configuration
Four identical 486DX4 100MHz with 256K cache, 16M RAM, 1.1G disk, Ethernet, SVGA display
Primary Use Of System
Research involving PAPERS and the development of an MPL (MasPar's Parallel Language -- a parallel C dialect) compiler. It is also used with MPI for course projects.
Project URL
http://eb-p5.eb.uah.edu/ece/research/Cohen.html
Contact Information
Email to cohen@ebs330.eb.uah.edu, phone (205) 895 6830

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Purdue University

Date System Became Operational
July 1994
Hardware Parallelism & Interconnect Structure
4 Linux machines connected by TTL_PAPERS, PAPERS1, and Ethernet
Hardware Configuration
Four identical IBM ValuePoint 486DX33, 8M RAM, 340M disk, 2 parallel ports, Ethernet, VGA; 2x2 monitor VGA display array
Primary Use Of System
This cluster is used primarily for PAPERS software development. It has also been used for Ethernet and PVM experiments.
Project URL
http://garage.ecn.purdue.edu/~papers
Contact Information
Email to hankd@ecn.purdue.edu, phone (765) 494 3357

HGD

This page was last modified May 19, 1998. [an error occurred while processing this directive]