I posted this on GAF a little while ago, and am slightly surprised it hasn't made its way here yet, so I guess I'll just post it here too myself
The formal announcement is supposedly due tomorrow, but HPCWire got whiff of it early:
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/967146.html
More reporting:
http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061009/NEWS01/61009002
http://grids.itmanagersjournal.com/gridsclusters/06/10/09/1345209.shtml?tid=66
Terra Softs site (+ video of the cluster site's construction):
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/
For those that don't know, Terra Soft is a (very) small company who previously worked on Power-based Linux distros for Apple products primarily. Now that Apple has switched to Intel, Terra Soft seems to be embracing Cell as its future.
Interesting news for a number of reasons, I guess. It highlights Yellow Dog as perhaps the most likely 'standard' PS3 Linux distro given this deal, since it's there and ready basically. It also is the beginning of dependent business forming around Cell, which is fairly significant. It'll also be the first Cell-based cluster/supercomputer, being ready by the end of the year (the IBM Los Alamos one isn't due to be finished so soon, I don't think). And then I guess there's the whole development of SCE moving into the business of apparently hiring out compute power from its own cluster (as cited above, to Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge and Los Alamos + more).
The formal announcement is supposedly due tomorrow, but HPCWire got whiff of it early:
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/967146.html
Tomorrow, Terra Soft will officially announce the construction of the world's first Cell-based supercomputing cluster.
In the fall of '05, Terra Soft was contacted by Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. (SCEI) to develop and manage a supercomputing cluster built upon the IBM Cell Broadband Engine and the Linux OS. This spring, Terra Soft was contracted by Sony and in August completed the construction of a 3000 sq-ft supercomputing facility capable of housing 2400 1U systems. In this remodeled extension to the Loveland, Colorado headquarters, Terra Soft will construct a test cluster and a substantially larger production cluster, dubbed "E.coli" and "Amoeba" respectively.
Terra Soft will use the test cluster "E.coli" to conduct advanced software development, optimization, and testing with emphasis on Y-HPC and Y-Bio applied to the Cell Broadband Engine. The production cluster "Amoeba" will be made available to select University and Department of Energy laboratories to further life sciences research.
The clusters will incorporate, in part, Cell-based PS3 systems. The Cell Broadband Engine provides a "1 + 8" multi-core processing environment, enabling optimized code to function at a superior level of performance over traditional single or dual core CPUs. With all 8 cores on a single chip, the code processes do not lose performance by dropping down to the memory bus as with historic, multiple CPU configurations.
Glen Otero, Director of Life Sciences Research for Terra Soft Solutions explains, "This cluster represents a two-fold opportunity: to optimize a suite of open-source life science applications for the Cell processor; to develop a hands-on community around this world-first cluster whereby researchers and life science studies at all levels may benefit. Once up and running with our first labs engaged, we will expand the community through invitations and referrals, supporting a growing knowledge base and library of Cell optimized code, open and available to life science researchers everywhere."
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab is working with Terra Soft to optimize a suite of life science applications. Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Labs are also engaged, with select universities coming on-board early in 2007. Terra Soft is working to optimize the entire Y-Bio bioinformatics suite.
Thomas Swidler, Sr. Director of Research & Development at SCEI states, "This cluster is for Sony a means of demonstrating the diversity of the PS3, taking it well beyond the traditional role of a game box. While we are not in the business of competing for the Top500.org nor building cluster components, this creative use of the PS3 beta systems enables Sony to support a level of real world research that may produce very positive, beneficial results."
More reporting:
http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061009/NEWS01/61009002
http://grids.itmanagersjournal.com/gridsclusters/06/10/09/1345209.shtml?tid=66
Terra Softs site (+ video of the cluster site's construction):
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/
For those that don't know, Terra Soft is a (very) small company who previously worked on Power-based Linux distros for Apple products primarily. Now that Apple has switched to Intel, Terra Soft seems to be embracing Cell as its future.
Interesting news for a number of reasons, I guess. It highlights Yellow Dog as perhaps the most likely 'standard' PS3 Linux distro given this deal, since it's there and ready basically. It also is the beginning of dependent business forming around Cell, which is fairly significant. It'll also be the first Cell-based cluster/supercomputer, being ready by the end of the year (the IBM Los Alamos one isn't due to be finished so soon, I don't think). And then I guess there's the whole development of SCE moving into the business of apparently hiring out compute power from its own cluster (as cited above, to Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge and Los Alamos + more).