[Acpc-l] Vortrag: Prof. Thomas Sterling, 29.5.2001

[AURORA Project]

Herr Prof. Sterling musste leider wegen Krankheit seinen geplanten Besuch nach 
Wien absagen. Der angekuendigte Vortrag findet daher nicht statt.

mfg
Elisabeth Obermaier

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Subject: Vortrag: Prof. Thomas Sterling, 29.5.2001
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              UNIVERSITAET WIEN INSTITUT FUER SOFTWAREWISSENSCHAFT
                                    gemeinsam mit
               FWF-Projekt Spezialforschungsbereich F011 "AURORA"


            EINLADUNG ZU EINEM VORTRAG IM RAHMEN DES AURORA-KOLLOQUIUMS


           The Revolution and Rapid Evolution of Beowulf-class PC Clusters 
                           


                             Prof. Thomas Sterling

                      Center for Advanced Computing Research, 
                   California Institute of Technology and High
                           Performance Computing Group, 
                          NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

	         
	         ZEIT:  Dienstag, 29. 5. 2001, 17.00 Uhr c.t.  
	           ORT:  Institut fuer Softwarewissenschaft
	              1090 Wien, Liechtensteinstrasse 22, 
	                      Seminarraum, Mezzanin


Abstract

Commodity cluster computing has emerged as a dominant method of achieving high 
performance for many application types and is replacing MPPs, DSMs, and PVPs in 
many operational domains due to its excellent price-performance, configuration 
flexibility, and rapid technology tracking. Beowulf-class PC clusters represent 
an important segment of the commodity cluster market and is the target of 
increased development in both the research and industrial sectors. While the 
first Beowulfs were employed as early as 1994, it is only in the last two years 
that they have reached the foreground through important advances in hardware and 
software technologies. Today in the US and around the world, some of the most 
powerful computers are of this type. Some 28 of the top 500 computers are 
commodity clusters. The most powerful academic computer in the US is a commodity 
cluster under development by Compaq at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center with 
a peak throughput of 6 Tflops. And the largest computer in the US in 2002 will 
be the DOE ASCI Purple computer, also a commodity cluster capable of 30 Tflops. 
As a consequence, Beowulfs and other cluster types have matured such that they 
are suitable for applications in industry, commerce, and government. A number of 
tools for system installation, configuration, monitoring, scheduling, debugging, 
and administration have become available to provide many of the services 
required of production grade systems. But important advances in node and 
interconnect hardware as well as software tools are under development and will 
force a rapid evolution of what has been called a revolution in HPC systems. 
This presentation will summarize the status of Beowulf-class PC cluster 
computing and examine three areas of improvement: networking advances through 
VIA and Infiniband, system software represented by the Scyld tool set, and 
symbolic computing through a distributed common lisp. 

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In Anschluss an den Vortrag ist ein gemeinsames Abendessen im Restaurant Ragusa 
geplant (auf eigene Kosten). Bitte um Anmeldung bis 28. 5. 2001, 16.00 Uhr.



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