[yellowdog-announce] Terra Soft, Sony to Build World's First Cell Cluster: Press Release 2006 10/10

Announce List for all Terra Soft products (moderated) yellowdog-announce at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
Tue Oct 10 07:59:52 MDT 2006


TERRA SOFT, SONY TO BUILD WORLD'S FIRST CELL CLUSTER

LOVELAND, Colorado - 10 October 2006 - Terra Soft is proud to announce 
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.

Terra Soft will use the test cluster 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 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 
realworld research that may produce very positive, beneficial results."

Regarding Terra Soft's contribution to the project, Swidler continued, "In 
working with Terra Soft, we found a single source for the operating system, 
cluster construction tools, and bioinformatics software suite. Again, their 
dedication to detail and professional results has surpassed our expectations. 
We are very eager for the completion of this initial phase in order that the 
research may begin."

Both clusters will run the new Yellow Dog Linux v5.0 operating system; a beta 
version of Y-HPC v2.0, the world's first commercial, cross-architecture Linux 
cluster construction suite; the Moab cluster management suite by Cluster 
Resources; and Y-Bio v1.1, a suite of gene sequence analysis tools soon to be 
optimized for the Cell processor.

Kai Staats, CEO of Terra Soft offers, "Working to complete the cluster 
facility has been the highlight of my time in this industry, a truly 
gratifying experience. What we have accomplished this spring and summer 
showcases the peak of our design, coordination, and engineering effort ... 
from facility design and construction in July and August to the cluster 
build-out in November and December --our best effort to date."

The final cluster components are to arrive early November with the cluster 
slated to be fully operational with the close of the year.

As a guest of IBM at the annual SC2006 tradeshow, Nov 13-16, Terra Soft will 
showcase Yellow Dog Linux v5.0, Y-HPC v2.0 beta, and Y-Bio v1.1 on a small 
cluster of PS3s. More information about YDL, Y-HPC, and Y-Bio are available 
at Terra Soft's website, http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com


About Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.
As the recognized leader in Linux for Power since 1999, Terra Soft provides 
turn-key integrated solutions built upon IBM and Mercury systems, board 
support packages for Power OEMs, and develops cross-architecture Linux 
applications for high performance computing. As an IBM Business Partner, 
Mercury and Apple VAR, Terra Soft provides turnkey HPC systems. Terra Soft 
develops Yellow Dog Linux, an historic 32/64-bit Linux OS for the Power 
architecture and first to market with support for the Cell processor; the 
Y-HPC cluster construction; and Y-Bio, a cross-architecture gene sequence 
analysis suite for both workstations and clusters.

For more information, visit http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com


About Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.
Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. continues to redefine the 
entertainment lifestyle with its PS one(TM) game console, PlayStation(R)2 
computer entertainment system, PSP(R) (PlayStation(R)Portable) handheld 
entertainment system and the upcoming, much-anticipated PLAYSTATION(R)3 
computer entertainment system.

Recognized as the undisputed industry leader, Sony Computer Entertainment 
America Inc. markets the PlayStation family of products and develops, 
publishes, markets and distributes software for PS one game console, 
PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and PSP handheld entertainment 
system for the North American market. Based in Foster City, Calif. Sony 
Computer Entertainment America Inc. serves as regional headquarters for all 
North American operations and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer 
Entertainment Inc.

For more information visit http://www.sony.com


PS3 is a trademark of Sony. Power is a trademark of IBM. YDL, Y-HPC, and Y-Bio 
are trademarks of Terra Soft Solutions. Linux is a registered trademark of 
Linus Torvalds. Additional product and company names mentioned may be 
trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective holders. 


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