| 1998 Q1 | Our
work so far has focused on developing software infrastructure for PC clusters.
We have nearly finished a reference implementation of the Virtual Interface
Architecture (VIA) standard, and are working with Intel to ensure that our
implementation meets the specification and to clarify the standard [Intel
contact: Ed Gronke]. Our current implementation is for Linux, and an earlier
implementation (of VIA 0.9) was for FreeBSD. Our reference VIA implementation
will form the basis of projects to implement MPI and Active Messages II
on VIA. As the primary advocates of including a linux-based version of Millennium,
we have participated in the emerging "Extreme Linux" cluster software collaboration.
We expect to play the role of a "gateway" through which Extreme Linux software
can imported into the UCB Solaris-based Millennium environment. We have
also begun planning to port UCB-developed NOW software to Linux and bring
it into Extreme Linux.
The other aspect of our work is to make DOE-developed scientific software available on the Millennium platform. More specifically, we are focusing on a suite of software known as the ACTS toolkit. This project is ramping up, and are about to hire our first full time staff person. We expect to provide support to UC scientists who want to use ACTS tools on Millennium. |
| 1998 Q2 | The Millennium hardware grant has become the seed of a PC Cluster project at NERSC. Our primary goal is to make it easier for NERSC clients to put together small clusters for scientific computation. See http://www.nersc.gov/research/FTG/pcp for more information. We have noted (http:.../pcp/performance.html) that the performance of new Intel processors is for the first time higher than that of a current generation MPP processor. We were able to leverage our small Millennium cluster to obtain funding from the Department of Energy for 20 additional cluster nodes for software development. We are working on several pieces of cluster infrastructure, focusing on support for Linux-based clusters. This includes a full implementation of Virtual Interface Architecture (VIA), a port/rewrite of Glunix, fast implementations of MPI on TCP and VIA, and software for managing a Linux cluster. |