Un mini-supercomputer Tyan con cpu Quad Core

Nella giornata di ieri, come segnalato in questa notizia, Intel ha ufficialmente presentato le proprie nuove soluzioni Quad Core per sistemi server della famiglia Xeon DP; si tratta dei processori Xeon serie 5300, noi con il nome in codice di Clovertown.

La taiwanese Tyan, azienda impegnata da tempo nella produzione di sistemi server, ha contestualmente presentato Typhoon 60, un mini supercomputer che raccoglie all'interno di uno chassis di dimensioni considerevoli ma pur sempre trasportabile che integra un massimo di 40 core di processore.

All'interno del Typhoon 600 è presente un sistema principale, dotato di due Socket per processori Xeon serie 5300, al quale possono essere collegati sino a 4 nodi dalle caratteristiche tecniche identiche. Per ogni nodo è possibile installare un massimo di 12 Gbytes di memoria FB Dimm DDR2.

Il sistema principale permette di gestire un massimo di 3 hard disk, mentre per ogni nodo è collegabile un solo hard disk; in entrambi i casi si tratta di meccaniche Serial ATA. L'alimentazione è assicurata dalla presenza di 3 alimentatori da 600 Watt ciascuno, uno dei quali è dedicato al sistema principale.

I sistemi operativi supportati da Typhoon T-600 sono quelli Linux oppure Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server (CCS) 2003; le connessioni tra i vari nodi vengono assicurate o attraverso scheda di rete Gigabit oppure via connessione InfiniBand, fornita come soluzione opzionale.

Questa nuova soluzione è attesa in commercio a partire dal mese di Gennaio 2007, con prezzi a partire da 15.000 dollari USA. Di seguito l'intero comunicato stampa rilasciato da Tyan:

SC2006 Tampa, Fla. Nov 14, 2006 – Tyan Computer Corporation, a leader in high performance computing system design, today announced an intent to partner with Platform Computing Inc. for optional bundling of Platform’s Open Cluster Stack (OCS) as an integrated vendor certified cluster stack for the TyanPSC Typhoon personal supercomputer. The TyanPSC Typhoon 600 series is based on Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processors 5300 Series (Clovertown). Tyan's innovative line of personal supercomputers provide new ways to use and access the computational power of supercomputing by offering turnkey workstations that are easy to deploy, easy to use, and work in any lab, office or other constrained environments.

Platform Open Cluster Stack (OCS) is a modular and hybrid stack that transparently integrates open source and commercial software into a single consistent cluster operating environment. Platform OCS is a pre-integrated, vendor certified software stack that assures the consistent delivery of scale-out application clusters. This enhanced software stack eliminates the higher costs of sales, support and development caused by inconsistent software and certification in Linux clusters.

TyanPSC will offer Platform OCS for single Typhoon PSC cluster systems and for organization seeking to grid-enable the TyanPSC Typhoons to form an organizational grid can leverage Platform LSF and Multi-cluster options available as a factory install.

"Platform Computing is pleased to have been selected by Tyan to offer Platform OCS for the TyanPSC Typhoon systems. We intent to work closely with Tyan to ensure our offerings are consistent with TyanPSC’s vision of personal supercomputing. In addition, Platform LSF and Multi-cluster software will enable users of TyanPSC Typhoons to form a loosely coupled organizational Grid with minimum effort," said Chris Purpura, Vice President of New Ventures Group and Strategic Alliances, Platform Computing. "Platform’s support infrastructure gives TyanPSC customers and partners the best of the open source and commercial software worlds – customers get the support they expect from a commercial vendor and benefit from the unique innovation that is symbolic of open source. Because Platform OCS is certified and runs on TyanPSC Typhoon clusters, ISVs are able to target a large portion of the personal supercomputing market without increasing their development and validation costs."

"Tyan has taken a leadership position in the personal supercomputing space, delivering Typhoon I nearly 1 year ago and now we are launching Typhoon 600 series based on the latest Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processors," said Eric Chang, Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Tyan Computer. "Platform’s Open Cluster Stack is helping us extend our personal supercomputing leadership by offering ease of use for the end users, best in class cluster software and support and at the same time, enabling organization to form a production ready enterprise Grid based on Typhoon 600 series clusters with Platform LSF and Multi-cluster."

Typhoon 600 Series Features:

• 256 gigaflops peak performance
• 1400 Watts max, plugs into standard wall outlet
• Small form factor, portable
• Low-noise, whisper quiet operation… less than 52dB.
• Platform Computing Open Cluster Stack
• Personal Supercomputer using Microsoft Windows Computer Cluster Server 2003
• Up to 40 CPU cores per system