Director's Forum
Technology and Innovation Provide a New Era
The ARL MSRC continues to refresh and upgrade its computational capabilities to provide our users the latest in computing power and technology. In FY2005 we installed two new clusters: a 2304-processor IBM 1350, a 2048-processor Linux Networx Evolocity II and an SGI Altix with 256 processors. Our compute capability has now increased by a factor of 400 since 1996, when the ARL MSRC was established. Stryker (IBM) and John Von Neumann (Linux Networx) is now allocated, please take the opportunity to try them.
The evaluations and decision on the annual HPCMP technology insertions (TIs) are generally an arduous task. The decision to procure our clusters was facilitated by a new HPCMP Optimizer. There is much mystique surrounding this Optimizer, Roy Campbell debunks the most common myths in his article on page 21.
Also new to the HPCMP are Capability Applications Projects (CAP). CAPs are projects selected to allow large-scale capability computational workload on the newest, largest HPCMP HPC systems before they enter the formal allocations process. These projects can have essentially dedicated time on the entire machine. We highlight two CAP applications utilizing the newly installed ARL MSRC TI-04 systems on pages 16 and 18
The ARL MSRC is not only about technology and hardware. Much of the Center’s strength comes from the dedication and creativeness of our staff. In the last 18 months, in addition to the HPCMP Optimizer, we have participated and led several innovative projects.
One important role of the Center’s team is to collaborate with researchers in the formation and design of conceptual weapons systems. The team develops conceptual animations to provide context to new technologies and insight to future test planning and experimentation. Page 20 describes the methodology used by the Scientific Visualization Team to assist our customers in developing a comprehensive representation of the Switchblade conceptual system.
In the Fall 2004 issue of the Link, the cover story featured the ARL’s adaptation of the Institute for Creative Technology’s Flatworld for physics based simulations run on high performance computing platforms. This effort, now known as the Multi-sensory Environment for Scientific Data Assessment (or MESDA) made its debut at the 24th Army Science Conference in December in Orlando FL. This technology, which is patent pending, promises to have significant impact on the DoD by changing the way results of physics based simulations are analyzed.
At SC2004, Pittsburgh, PA StorCloud showcased HPC storage technologies comprising state of the art heterogeneous systems and technology to build a virtual on-site “storage on request” area network capability to support researches and demonstrate high bandwidth applications at the conference. StorCloud was architected and deployed entirely by volunteers from government, industry and academia. The ARL MSRC was an integral part of this initiative. We provided talented staff to architect, build and support StorCloud. Additionally, we contributed networking equipment and developed the time lapse video for StorCloud. The ARL MSRC is proud to be part of the SC|05 StorCloud team this year. See SC2004 article on page 10 and see the video of StorCloud construction on the ARL MSRC website: http://www.arl.hpc.mil/News/storcloud.html .
Time is fast approaching for the third Commodity Cluster Symposium "On the use of commodity clusters for large scale scientific applications" sponsored by the ARL MSRC, Raytheon and the Ohio Supercomputer Center. Held on July 26-28 in Greenbelt, Maryland, this year’s international symposium will be kicked-off by Bill Kramer, Deputy Director of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), as the keynote speaker. He will offer his insights in the future of cluster computing from the NERSC perspective. More on the cluster symposium can be found on page 26.
Finally, I want to thank Ric Kositzke the Link Designer and Managing Editor for his dedication to the ARL MSRC for the last two years. Ric has taken a position in the Washington DC area. I wish him good luck on his new venture. We will miss him.
- Charlie