API Networks introduces 140 Gflop/s rack clusterDallas 06 Nov 2000 API NetWorks introduced the CS20 at SC2000, the world's most powerful server in a 1U package and the company's most advanced platform for computer clustering. The CS20 is a rack-optimized, 1U, dual-processor Alpha server and gives the high-performance computing (HPC) and Internet community the ability to scale clusters into state-of-the-art supercomputer facilities, providing the most economic solution with the minimum computer room footprint.
The CS20 will be used to build advanced Web servers and render
farms and as a cost-effective platform in creating clustered
equivalents of supercomputers for large scale facilities, grand
challenge problems and complex research.
"Our customers need supercomputing power to run the
computationally intensive codes used to solve their real world
problems, including increasing fuel efficiency in commercial aircraft
by improving jet engine turbines, looking for extraterrestrial life,
determining the structure of the organic molecules that go into
pharmaceuticals, computing the path of weather systems and testing our
country's defense without firing a shot," said Stephen Fried,
president of Microway, Inc. "We use Alphas for our high-end
computational engines because the platform offers the highest floating
point performance and the fastest inter-processor connection speed.
The CS20 has the highest floating point density of any general purpose
product that has come to market in the history of computers."
Key features and functionality of the CS20 include:
Fast "Over-the-Network" cluster deployment
-- "Network aware" Linux in the firmware boots directly at power
on -- minimizing start up and recovery times
-- Dual on-board Ethernet controllers, use of Disk and 2 PCI
slots are optional -- enabling simple, minimal deployment
-- Can exploit all available Linux drivers -- enabling easy
configuration of custom systems
-- Advanced remote management capabilities -- greatly
facilitating installation, re-configuration, management and
monitoring
Most computing power in 1U form factor
-- 3.3 Gflop/s (billion floating point operations per second) --
allowing advanced applications to run faster than ever before
-- Dual 833 MHz Alphas -- no other 1U system in the world offers
dual Alpha processor support
Optimized for building high performance clusters
-- Scales to 42 CS20s in each standard rack -- creating
"supercomputing" power and performance with minimum real
estate
-- 140 Gflop/s of numerical computing power per standard rack --
meaning a Teraflops scale facility can be housed in just 8
racks
"Performance and space efficiency are priorities for clustered
system developers. This high-density rack mount server provides a
solid building block for the creation of reliable high-performance,
scalable and manageable Alpha Linux clusters in a small foot print,"
said Bill Claybrook, research director, Linux and Open Source, at
Aberdeen Group. "This cost-effective server solution is ideal for
government, education and scientific communities, as well as for
Internet solutions where hardware real estate is at a premium."
The CS20 will be available in Q1 of 2001.
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