1. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Cluster Computing David R. Swanson Beowulf and Bombs

2. Nature Model Experiments Computer Simulations Approximate Theories Numerical Results Theoretical Predictions Data Test Model Test Theory

3. UNL Computer Science & Engineering RCF : Research Computing Facility Provide Local HPC Resources Provide Training and Support Facilitate Production of Scalable Code

4. UNL Computer Science & Engineering RCF: Hardware 32 CPU SGI Origin 2000 8 GB RAM 300 GB HDD

5. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Beowulf : Definition MMCOTS LAN LINUX MPI

6. UNL Computer Science & Engineering So We Built a Beowulf… Origin cost half a million dollars PCs are increasingly powerful and affordable Network hardware is similarly improving Open source success (LINUX) Not many MPP options available

7. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Beowulf History 6 th Century: Beowulf slays Grendel 74 MFlops 1994: Wiglaf 74 MFlops 16 486/66, 16 MB RAM, 540 MB HDD, Ethernet 280 MFlops 1995: Hrothgar 280 MFlops 16 Pentium 100, 32 MB RAM, 1.2 GB HDD, Fast Ethernet Gflops 1996: Beowulfs at JPL and LANL Gflops 48 Gflops 1998: Avalon 48 Gflops 2000: Scavenger 16 Pentium 100+, 32 MB RAM, 1 GB HDD, Ethernet

8. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Beowulf How To Gather up old Pentiums from Inventory Get them to boot Load RedHat LINUX and MPI Borrow a HUB Warm up the Basement

9. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Scavenger SCAlable Varied Environment for Graduate Education and Research

10. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Bugeater Prototype number-crunching Beowulf Dual PIII 800MHz 512 MB RAM 20 GB HDD RedHat LINUX Fast Ethernet

11. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Atomistic Simulation Molecular Dynamics 3N 2 nd order differential equations Simulation stores and updates positions and velocities

12. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Predictor-Corrector Method Predicted values are easily calculated

13. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Predictor-Corrector Correction

14. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Distributed Cell Algorithm Divide system into cells and distribute Calculate within cells Potential range determines communication

15. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Ozone Detonation Detonation proceeds left to right Density: low (blue), medium (white), high (red)

16. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Summary Simulations link Mathematical Theory to Natural Phenomena Beowulf technology is cost-effective HPC

17. UNL Computer Science & Engineering Acknowledgements NSF/EPSCoR UN Foundation NRC/NRL (ONR)