More than 500 Compute Nodes Form 'Sooner' Linux Cluster Used
to Study and Model Tornadoes
ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Nov. 24, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- QLogic Corp.
(Nasdaq:QLGC), a leading supplier of high performance network
infrastructure solutions, today announced the University of Oklahoma
(OU) Supercomputing Center for Education & Research (OSCER) deployed
QLogic(r) InfiniBand(r) adapters and switches as part of its newest
Linux cluster, known as Sooner. OU researchers will use Sooner to study
and model tornadoes, in hopes of improving early warning systems and
reducing the financial toll and the number of lives lost to these
powerful windstorms.
OU Information Technology's director of supercomputing Henry Neeman and
his OSCER colleagues installed QLogic 7200 Series double data rate
(DDR) InfiniBand adapters, based on the QLogic TrueScale(tm)
architecture, and QLogic SilverStorm(tm) 9000 Series InfiniBand core
and edge switches to Sooner during the "in-place" transition from OU's
previous cluster, TopDawg.
"OSCER serves more than 400 students, faculty, and staff in virtually
every science and engineering discipline, as well as in medicine and
business," Neeman said. "As we transitioned from our previous HPC
cluster to Sooner, we were challenged with maintaining existing levels
of service to the rest of the university with minimal down time. We
successfully tackled that challenge and look forward to helping
researchers as they attempt to uncover clues to the mysteries of
tornado behavior."
"The exceptional performance of QLogic InfiniBand adapters and switches
on a variety of modeling applications at other institutions
demonstrated to us that this was a good fit for the university given
their leadership standing in the meteorological research community,"
said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp. "The
optimized, high-bandwidth, low-latency provided by QLogic end-to-end
InfiniBand networking solutions means that more modeling can be
achieved by institutions in a shorter period of time, ultimately moving
researchers to faster results."
Sooner consists of 534 compute nodes connected through QLogic 7200
Series DDR adapters in a 2:1 fat tree topology. The core switch of this
network topology, the QLogic director-class SilverStorm 9240 288 port
DDR switch, connects to 37 QLogic SilverStorm 9024 24 Port DDR
InfiniBand switches, dispersed across 28 racks. The November 2008
Top500 list of Supercomputers ranks the Sooner Linux cluster in the
91st position and reports that Sooner has achieved 28 TFLOPs at 83
percent efficiency.
QLogic InfiniBand Adapters -- Run Faster, Scale Higher with TrueScale
Backed by an industry-best, three-year warranty, QLogic 7200 Series
adapters deliver industry-leading 20Gb DDR InfiniBand performance in a
cluster interconnect, allowing organizations to gain maximum advantage
and return on their investment by driving up the utilization of high
performance computing infrastructure. The 7200 Series, based on the
QLogic TrueScale DDR(tm) ASIC platform, is designed from the ground up
to provide HPC cluster interconnectivity with the highest messaging
rate and lowest latency available. QLogic 7200 Series InfiniBand
adapters are the first to deliver up to 26 million messages per second
between computing nodes at low scalable latencies. With a low-power
design, the 7200 Series is environmentally friendly and highly
reliable. The 7200 Series adheres to the OpenFabrics Distribution
(OFED) standard and has been certified with all major independent
software vendors (ISVs) and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) for
plug-and-play interoperability.
QLogic SilverStorm 9000 Series - Maximizes Cluster Connectivity,
Minimizes Data Center Costs
QLogic SilverStorm 9000 Series multi-protocol fabric directors support
high performance computing, database clustering and grid utility
computing applications. The SilverStorm 9000 Series maximizes cluster
and grid computing interconnect performance while simplifying and
reducing data center costs. The director leverages the latest
InfiniBand-based technologies to provide industry-leading port
densities, throughput performance, and ultra low latency. Incorporating
the innovative Virtual I/O Controller (VIC) technology, the SilverStorm
9000 Series enables hosts on InfiniBand fabrics to transparently access
either Fibre Channel or Ethernet networks or both. VIC technology
eliminates the cost and complexity of running multiple server physical
connections for storage, network, and inter-processor communications
and allows each virtual network type to scale independently over a
"single wire" connection.
About QLogic
QLogic is a leading supplier of high performance network infrastructure
solutions, which include the controller chips, host adapters and fabric
switches that are the backbone of storage networks for most Global 2000
corporations. The company delivers a broad and diverse portfolio of
products that includes Fibre Channel adapters, blade server embedded
Fibre Channel switches, Fibre Channel stackable switches, iSCSI
adapters and iSCSI routers. The company is also a leading supplier of
InfiniBand switches and InfiniBand host channel adapters for the
emerging high performance computing market. QLogic products are
delivered to small-to-medium businesses and large enterprises around
the world via its channel partner community. QLogic products are also
powering solutions from leading companies such as Cisco, Dell, EMC,
Hitachi Data Systems, HP, IBM, NetApp and Sun Microsystems. QLogic is a
member of the S&P 500 Index.