DOD buys five Linux supercomputers

Linux Networx announced Feb. 13 that the Defense Department has purchased five of its supercomputers — the largest order in the company’s history.

The procurement under DOD’s Technology Insertion 2006 program includes three Advanced Technology Clusters supercomputers for the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Major Shared Research Center and two LS-1 supersystems for the ARL and the service’s Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. The buy increases the ARL Major Shared Resource Center’s computing capability to more than 80 trillion floating-point operations, according to a Linux Networx statement.

“The Technology Insertion 2006 increase in computing capability will give DOD scientists and engineers the additional ability to solve more complex, 3-D, time-dependent, physics-based problems in a time frame that can provide the data necessary to assist with weapon development and procurement decisions,” said Charles Nietubicz, director of the ARL Major Shared Resource Center and director of the Computational and Information Sciences Directorate’s High Performance Computing Division.

The ARL Major Shared Resource Center will receive three Linux Networx Advanced Technology Clusters this summer. Two of the systems are an 1122-compute node supercomputer with 4488 mid-voltage 3.2 GHz Intel Dempsey cores for computation and an 842-compute node supercomputer with 3368 mid-voltage 3.2 GHz Intel Dempsey cores for computation, which puts them among the top 20 most powerful computer systems in the world.

The center will also accept the first Linux Networx LS-1 supersystem this summer. It is a 64-node supercomputer with dual Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 cards per node and an Infiniband network, which makes it the first scientific visualization supercomputer in DOD’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program. The program provides supercomputer services, computational science expertise and high-speed network communications so DOD laboratories can perform research, development and testing on weapon systems and technologies.

“This procurement features our Linux supercomputers powering a broad set of applications to solve a number of complex challenges — leveraging a variety of visualization capabilities within the DOD and within the defense community special programs,” said Robert “Bo” Ewald, chief executive officer of Linux Networx.