Sun Microsystems has heralded the age of accessible terascale supercomputing with the introduction of its Sun Fire Superclusters.
Based on the Sun Fire 6800, Sun Fire 12K and Sun Fire 15K server platforms, Superclusters provide interconnect technologies and tools to combine groups of individual servers into a single, powerful supercomputer.
Outclassing competitors with a solution that provides an open platform to thousands of applications, and increasing access to compute resources via Sun ONE Grid Engine software, Sun's new Sun Fire Superclusters feature Sun HPC ClusterTools 5 software and Sun Fire Link interconnect technology.
"With this combination, Sun is delivering a computing powerplant that scales up to two Teraflops and is capable of delivering high performance with high utilisation, attributes that are usually viewed within the industry as trade-off choices," says Tertius Bezuidenhout, national SE manager for Sun Microsystems SA.
"The advanced design and interconnect technologies represented in the Supercluster server configurations is a unique solution to the requirements of high capacity computing. Sun has brought together its combined strengths in the hardware, software and tools arenas to deliver some of the world's most powerful computers," he adds.
Bezuidenhout explains that the Supercluster configurations are targeted to serve the high-end computing requirements of government agencies, education and scientific institutions. "The kind of performance we are able to deliver with the Supercluster configuration is ideal for critical computational tasks like life sciences, weather and ocean forecasting, cryptanalysis, virtual manufacturing and failure analysis," he says.
The open nature of the Supercluster architecture enables users to collaborate and create evolving computing environments which are able to adapt as problem-solving needs expand or change.
"Sun's strategy to deliver a complete Supercluster solution is key to generating momentum in the high-performance technical computing space," says Earl Joseph, Vice-President, High Performance Systems, IDC Research. "Aiming directly at the capability computing segment with the Sun Fire Link interconnect and additional tools that support highly performing and highly productive computing environments, we expect Sun's Supercluster solutions will help increase interest in clustered solutions deployment throughout the industry."
Sun's Supercluster platform of servers, software and interconnect technologies are built on the Solaris Operating Environment and Sun ONE platform, and include SPARC processors, Sun Fire Link interconnect technology, Sun HPC InterConnect 5 tools, Sun ONE Grid Engine software and Sun ONE Studio 7 software.
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Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision - "The Network Is The Computer" - has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.
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