IBM presents servers and Grid samples in HeidelbergHeidelberg 21 jun 2002 Jamshed Mirza from IBM was eager to deny the rumour which was running among the ISC2002 audience that IBM would do everything to regain the first place in the TOP500. IBM happily settles for position no. 2 since the company is still the number one when it comes to installing teraflops.
Dr. Mirza described how Power4 delivered IBM's 1000th p690 Regatta system in less than 6 months.
At present, 1.500.000 systems are running and IBM has over 150.000 customers.
The company strongly believes in the complementatry Unix-Linux strategy. Linux is a strategic open volume Operating System and AIX forms a strategic industrial-strength Unix Operating System. IBM will develop technologies to accelerate the maturation of Linux and also continue to make investments in that directions, as Dr. Mirza stated.
IBM offers 1.3 GHz CPU clock speeds with 2 cores on a chip, an advanced superscalar design with a fast I/O interface. The processor Power4 will evolve to Power 4+ and then Power5, resulting in Power5+. The 512 node system delivers about 85 teraflops to 120 terflops and will grow to a few hundred teraflops.
Additional models are the large SMP p690 Regatta and the midrange P670, a cost-effective, rack-mountable low-end node based on Power4 and S&TC optimised dense midsize.
IBM provides a fully integrated, tested, validated cluster product which is X86 based today and has options for Ethernet or Myrinet. Dr. Mirza expects other nodes in the future, together with
blade-based systems for higher density, better RAS characteristics, better price/performance
using the latest Prestonia processor first and other processor blades in the future.
Ther is also an integrated Linux Cluster offering. IBM can deliver the TFLops one needs and the 512 node Regattas today can deliver 85 Teraflops, as mentioned before. The customer thus gets a
parallel cluster file sytem with systems management, a high performance storage solution and
compilers tools.
The customer also has access to IBM domain experts, which can be contacted through the advanced computing technology centre and the Deep Computing Institute. Furthermore, IBM relies on the expertise of segment experts in the HPC marketing groups, IBM global services, a world class research organisation in all aspects of science, and also individual developers.
Dr. Mirza pictured the vibrant reserach agenda including Blue Gene, Grid computing, eLiza, ultra-dense power-efficient servers, federated storage and databases, advanced hardware technology, advanced SW research, advanced algorithms, and pure science research.
IBM also tops the United States patent list for the nineth consecutive year. The company stands for a strong collaboration with its customers on the projects, offering the customer options between AIX or Linux, Power or Intel architecture, integrated clusters or "design-with-you".
IBM plans to provide AIX and Linux cluster interoperability. It will be the first common systems management with CSM cluster Systems Management over time. The company is addressing strategic problems, making Linux more enterprise and production capable, making Grid computing aligned for wider adoption, bringing parallel computing technologies to the commercial space, and encouraging the adoption of innovative technology to a wider segment.
Dr. Mirza also mentioned some important Grid wins for IBM including DTF, Das-2, eScience@Oxford, DOE Science Grid, BioGrid, and the National Digital Mammgraphy Archive.
Summarised, we can say that HPC is a key market segment for IBM and IBM intends to maintain this leadership by applying all resources to solve problems.
Leslie Versweyveld |
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