IBM Contributes Key Open-Source Code for Linux Supercomputers

Company’s First Certified Open-Source Stack Enables Heavy-Duty Clusters

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(EMWNews – August 5, 2008) – IBM (NYSE: IBM) today released its first

certified package of open-source software for supercomputers based on

Linux®. The IBM HPC Open Software Stack is designed to make “clusters” —

servers linked together to form a single super-fast system — more

productive and easier to manage.

The announcement was made at the opening of the LinuxWorld/NGDC tradeshow

in San Francisco.

Supercomputing, or high-performance computing (HPC), is experiencing rapid

growth as companies of all sizes begin to exploit the technology.

Increasingly, different processor types are being added to form “hybrid”

clusters that exploit the strengths of the different processors to gain

maximum efficiency or power. Many IT staffs lack sufficient experience

programming cluster-style installations. The IBM HPC Open Software Stack®

— integrated and tested by IBM — is meant to ease deployment of

supercomputing clusters. Users can also mix the open-source code with other

IBM software for a quicker, pre-integrated build-up.

The IBM HPC Open Source Software Stack can help develop and execute

applications as well as manage and monitor a system. Included in the new

open stack is IBM’s Extreme Cluster Administration Toolkit (xCAT). This

toolkit, originally developed for large x86-based clusters, has been

enhanced for Power®-based clusters and is used to manage the world’s most

powerful computer — a hybrid cluster built for the National Nuclear

Security Administration’s roadrunner project at Los Alamos National

Laboratory in New Mexico (www.top500.org).

The stack is planned to be initially available for systems built on IBM

Power6® processors. IBM plans to support IBM Power 575 supercomputing

servers and IBM x86 platforms including IBM System x 3450 servers, IBM

BladeCenter servers and IBM System x iDataPlex servers. The IBM HPC Open

Software Stack complements IBM’s existing fee-based offerings for HPC

software.

“IBM’s HPC Open Source Stack results from long experience with keeping

large-scale computing systems running like clockwork,” said Dave Turek, VP

of Deep Computing for IBM. “As more and more computing tasks migrate to

supercomputer style clusters, there is a need for software that can

effectively utilize and manage the large number of processors found in

these systems.”

The IBM HPC Stack is available through a software repository hosted by the

University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications

(NCSA), home to some of the largest cluster systems in the world. The

repository is available at: ftp://linuxpatch.ncsa.uiuc.edu/.

“Managing thousands of processor cores and multiple types of processors is

a challenge we see every day, and it will only grow in the future,” said

Rob Pennington, NCSA’s deputy director. “The IBM HPC Stack and other items

in the repository help open-source supercomputer users and systems managers

keep pace with the rapid advances in cluster computing. They are in

constant need of improved software components since the hardware advances

so quickly.”

Selected highlights of IBM’s HPC Open Software Stack, V1, which is

supported on Red Hat™ Enterprise Linux 5.2, include: Advance Toolchain

for POWER™ Systems 1.1; IBM HPC Open Source Software Stack install

scripts; Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management (SLURM) version 1.3.1

and Extreme Cluster Administration Toolkit (xCAT) version 2.0

IBM is the supercomputing industry leader with 232 systems on the current

TOP500 list representing a wide variety of platforms and technology. More

information on IBM supercomputers is available at:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/deepcomputing/

IBM, Power and iDataPlex are trademarks or registered trademarks of

International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other

countries or both. A full list of U.S. trademarks owned by IBM may be

found at: http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States,

other countries, or both.

Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service

marks of others.

Press Contact: Michael Corrado IBM Media Relations 914-766-4635 [email protected]