Fujitsu Siemens hpcLine now available with ParaStation and Myrinet2000

Munich 06 March 2001 Fujitsu Siemens Computers' (FSC) cluster solution hpcLine is now available with Myrinet2000 and ParaStation. FSC and ParTec AG, a spin-off of University Karlsruhe, cooperate in cluster solutions. This is an alternative solution to the SCI high-speed interconnect with the Scali software and the customer has the optimal choice that fits his need.

FSC's hpcLine is an Intel-based cluster system, equipped with the newest Intel Pentium processors. Up to now the dual processor nodes are connected via Fast Ethernet or with the high-speed interconnect SCI (Scalable Coherent Interface) from Scali AS, Norway. Fast Ethernet is sufficient, when programs have a low communication load.

ParaStation and Myrinet

Now FSC offers an alternative. In a recently closed co-operation with ParTec AG, both companies developed an hpcLine solution with Myrinet as the system area network and ParaStation as the communication and management middleware. Now the Myrinet2000 high-speed interconnect has a bi-directional throughput of 2 x 2 Gbit/s. ParaStation, developed by ParTec, is a highly optimised communication sub-system for hpcLine on top of Linux. ParaStation III is a robust and user-friendly middleware for Myrinet. It realises MPI (Message Passing Interface), compatible to MPICH, PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine), compatible to PVM 3.3.11 and Java, Java sockets and optimised RMI (Remote Method Invocation). Additionally, ParaStation has programming interfaces for message and stream based protocols, sockets, TCP and UDP. The communication is based on reliable protocols.

ParaStation additionally serves as a cluster management system. The single system view allows all nodes to be seen as one system. It allows for example:

  • logical nodes
  • automatic node management
  • automatic process management
  • automatic load distribution
  • cluster environment tolerates missing erroneous nodes
  • parallel job control and error management
  • accounting of parallel jobs
It has interfaces to a lot of standard batch systems.

hpcLine

FSC announced this cluster solution two years ago. In the meantime it can be seen as a cost-effective cluster/parallel computer solution. It succeeded in industry too, as Fujitsu Siemens Computers ports and optimises application software of different areas on this cluster solution. FSC co-operates with different ISVs (Independent Software Vendors), e.g. in CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering).

Siemens Nuclear Power uses a 16 node (32 Pentium III processors) hpcLine for the fluid dynamics application STAR-HPC from Computational Dynamics. BASF recently received an hpcLine with 32 processors for the fluid applications FLUENT and COMET. DaimlerChrysler and BMW use their clusters for electromagnetic compatibility, running the parallel program FEKO. These examples underpin the trend also in industry to cost-effective cluster solutions. The first installation of an hpcLine system (8 nodes) with the Myrinet2000 interconnect and the ParaStation software has been recently performed at the Max-Planck Institute for Metal Research in Stuttgart.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers offer a starter kit hpcLine for research and education for DM 130 000 plus VAT (about 65 000 euro). It contains 8 nodes with a total of 16 Pentium III, 1 GHz, 8 x 512 MByte RAM, 8 x 40 GByte disk space, the Myrinet 2000 interconnect and the ParaStation software.

http://www.hpcline.de http://www.myrinet.com http://www.par-tec.com

Uwe Harms

[News on Advanced IT][Calendar][Analysis][IT in Medicine]