By the end of the month, OIT will open its new high-performance computer cluster, known as a Beowulf cluster, which will support research in several departments.
The cluster will serve faculty and students who run computationally intensive programs by offering processing time on its high-performance computers.
The cluster will also allow OIT to provide departments that already have Beowulf clusters with trouble shooting and other support services, Curt Hillegas, OIT's manager of research and academic applications support, said.
The new cluster will be composed of many PC's linked by an extremely fast network and will mimic a supercomputer, Hillegas explained.
"The Beowulf cluster takes standard, mass-produced parts and forms, in essence, a supercomputer," he said.
Though it does not look like a typical desktop computer, it works the same way, he said.
The Beowulf cluster, funded by OIT, is a minimal cost project, Hillegas said, noting that supercomputers usually cost millions of dollars.
"We are operating at a list price of only $180,000, and the University paid even less," he said.
The Beowulf was formed out of a partnership between OIT and Dell Computer Corporation, who will begin installing the hardware and software Monday.
The new cluster will allow OIT to better support the more than six Beowulf clusters already in place in various departments, Hillegas said.
Chemistry Professor Kevin Leh-mann said OIT will be able to ensure that all components of Beowulf clusters across campus are working.
"Maintenance of these computers is a significant problem," Lehmann said. "When you have many computers linked together it is probable that multiple computers will be broken or not functioning at any given time."
Security issues are also a concern, and OIT would be able to control the security of the clusters, Lehmann said.
The computer cluster will also be used as a teaching tool.
"It will allow students to have access to a real research environment," Hillegas said.
"It will also be used for running jobs, aiding research and writing papers," Hillegas said. "It can be used for testing networking, filing and interpreting research."
"Computers these days are powerful, but imagine what mobility you would have if you could link many computers together," Leh-mann said.
He said he is planning on using the new cluster to aid his research.
"We are running tests in the lab, but we need calculations to compare the results to," Lehmann said.
"We are trying to calculate properties of a substance by assuming positions, and then randomly changing them. Following a set of rules, the computer completes these random changes," he said.
These types of mass calculations, nicknamed Monte Carlo calculations, are similar to gambling, Lehmann explained.
"If we run this program forever," Roman Schmied GS explained, "we will be able to predict the exact properties."
The more computers in series, he said, the more results he can obtain.
Hillegas said the power of a Beowulf cluster is limited by the speed of the connections between them.
"Luckily, the calculations we are doing do not require the computers to be constantly contacting each other," Lehmann said, explaining that each component of the Beowulf cluster would work independently, and at the end the computers could compile the data and average the results.
The new Beowulf cluster, comprising 32 computers, is modest in comparison to typical Beowulf clusters. "It is common for these machines to link over a hundred computers together," Lehmann said.
He said he is hoping to file a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation for a Beowulf cluster in the chemistry department. "I would ideally like to link 128 to 256 PC's together," he said.
Each of the cluster's 32 nodes has two 2.4 GHz processors — twice as fast as most students' computers — each with two gigabytes of memory, Hillegas said. "The master node, which all the nodes are connected to, contains about a terabyte of storage."
The cluster will be used as a demo unit for departments who are considering installing similar clusters of their own, Lehmann said. "People can use it to test previously existing programs, or OIT can use it to help write or rewrite programs," Leh-mann said.
Lehmann suggested OIT could take over managing all Beowulf clusters on campus. Then, if a machine were being underutilized, it could be made accessible to other people.
Use of the OIT Beowulf cluster, to be located in the Machine room of the OIT building at 87 Prospect Ave., will be open to all students and faculty.
"The computer will be open to everyone, including undergraduates, but will require a registration," Hillegas said, confirming that there would be no fee associated with registration.
"At first there will be a maximum of one business day delay between registration and permission to use the computer," Hillegas said. "However, assuming things are working smoothly, the process might be automated, providing nearly instant access."
Though all the details have not been finalized, Hillegas said each registered user will be allotted roughly 100 megabytes on the cluster.
"Users will sign-in to the master node and submit jobs and compile programs," Hillegas said.
So far, the astrophysics, geosciences, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry and physics departments have all expressed an interest in using the new cluster, said Hillegas.
Hillegas said even researchers in the Wilson School expressed interest.
In the 1990's, when Beowulf technology was developed, the method was named after a science fiction novel — not the old-English epic — Hillegas said.
"In the book there was a planet called Grendel where the novel's hero, Beowulf, lived," Hillegas summarized. "The science fiction novel obviously has its roots in classic literature."
"The idea is that, like the hero in the novel, this piece of equipment will attack scientific problems and conquer them," Hillegas said.
"It might not be as noble as a supercomputer," he said of the Beowulf cluster, "but it will be capable of solving problems just as well, if not better than a supercomputer."
In the planning and developing of the Beowulf cluster, OIT has worked closely with the Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering "to complement each other," Hillegas said.
"OIT is responding to the needs of the community and is getting involved and providing a requested support," Hillegas said.
The power that the cluster will provide will take research to a level that not long ago existed only in science fiction.
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