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Seattle, Washington 14-17 November 2005 |
Live demos of Myri-10G in Ethernet and Myrinet modes
Live demos of the new Myrinet Fabric Management System (FMS)
101 Nov-05 TOP500 Myrinet systems, 32 new to the Nov-05 list
Announcement of Myricom Support for Windows Compute Cluster Server
with demos in both the Myricom and Microsoft booths
Three HPCwire Readers' Choice Awards!
SC|05 was for Myricom a "coming-out party" for our new Myri-10G products. These fourth-generation Myricom products are a convergence that leverages 10-Gigabit Ethernet technology into the HPC world, and HPC techniques into the Ethernet world. One of the two plasma displays in the Myricom booth showed an exposition of Myri-10G and examples of Myricom's alliances in the 10-Gigabit Ethernet market (pdf, 1.2MB).
Myri-10G Demonstrations. The Myricom booth included two clusters, the 8-node Linux cluster shown to the right, and a similar cluster with the hosts running a Beta version of Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003.
In keeping with the Myri-10G convergence theme, these clusters were each connected with three networks with three NICs in each node.
The two clusters were also connected to each other with Myri-10G and Myrinet-2000 fiber cables over the top of the booth.
The 128-port Myri-10G switches received particularly close attention from visitors to the Myricom booth. In addition to its high port count, these 14U, enterprise-class, modular switches include complete functional and physical monitoring, redundant hot-swap power supplies, and redundant hot-swap fans.
The clusters in the Myricom booth were used principally to exhibit benchmarks. However, a Windows Compute Cluster Server cluster of IBM hosts using Myri-10G NICs in Ethernet mode with a Foundry Networks FastIron SuperX switch was on display in the Microsoft booth running a live Fluent demo.
Fabric Management System (FMS) Demonstrations. The technical team provided a demonstration and tutorial of the use of Myricom's new FMS software, which is now available for all Myrinet software distributions. FMS is a collection of tools and processes used to manage a Myrinet network. FMS provides centralized diagnostic monitoring of the Myrinet fabric from a command-line interface or web interface. FMS consists of one FMS server process to manage the fabric, and many FMA (Fabric Management Agent) processes, one running on each Myrinet node in the fabric. FMS is a significant advance in the monitoring and diagnosis of Myrinet fabrics, and is of particular value for large installations.
The November-2005 TOP500 list was released on Monday 14 November, just prior to the opening of the SC|05 exhibits. There were 101 systems listed using Myrinet interconnect technology (family), 32 of which were new to the TOP500 list between June 2005 and November 2005. One of the plasma-display presentations (pdf, 1.3MB) featured some of the Myrinet clusters on the TOP500 list, including MareNostrum blade cluster (#8 on the November-2005 list) and the new COLSA MACH5 cluster (#15 on the November-2005 list) with 1536 Apple dual-G5 Xserve nodes, the largest and fastest Apple cluster in the world.
Myricom support for Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Myricom announced at SC|05 our support for Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (see the press release). Myricom software support has included earlier editions of Windows over the past decade, and most recently has included Sockets support in the form of a Winsock Direct (WSD) provider. The use of the WSD software interface allows high performance with fast, low-latency, kernel-bypass networks such as Myrinet-2000 and Myri-10G, but also allows the use of application programs distributed in binary releases. Microsoft's and Myricom's goal is to supply 'turnkey' cluster software that will simplify the installation and maintenance of compute clusters.
In addition to the Windows Compute Cluster Server cluster in the Myricom booth, a Fluent demo in the Microsoft booth ran on a cluster of IBM hosts with Myri-10G NICs in Ethernet mode and a Foundry Networks FastIron SuperX 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch.
HPCwire Readers' Choice Awards. It's quite unusual for a company to win three of the HPCwire Readers' Choice Awards, but Myricom did so at SC|05 in these categories:
The Readers' Choice Awards are determined by a ballot of HPCwire readers, a knowedgeable group who works on the front lines of HPC. Thus, we are particularly proud of these recognitions of the innovation and hard work of the Myricom technical team.
Left to right: Tom Tabor, Publisher of HPCwire; Dr. Chuck Seitz, CEO of Myricom;
Dr. Nan Boden, Executive Vice President of Myricom; and Dr. Patrick Geoffray,
Senior Software Architect, the principal architect of the Myrinet Express (MX) software.
Seattle was pleasant during SC|05, with only one day with rain. For readers who are not familiar with the SC conferences, this venue includes not only a technical conference and exposition, but is a convention of HPC people. Myricom technical and sales people saw many old friends and made some new friends both on the exposition floor and at numerous off-site visits with our customers and partners.
The Myricom booth one morning before the exhibits opened
The Exhibit Team. The Myricom team attending and exhibiting at SC|05 were Scott Atchley, Member Technical Staff; Susan Blackford, Member Technical Staff; Dr. Nan Boden, Executive Vice President; Eugene Chun, Programmer; John Daley, Senior Programmer; Patrice Duffort, Director of EMEA Sales; Brett Ellis, Senior System Administrator; Reese Faucette, Senior Software Architect; Dr. Markus Fischer, Senior Software Architect; Dr. Patrick Geoffray, Senior Software Architect; Dave PeGan, Vice President, Sales; Scott Schweitzer, Director of OEM Business Development; Dr. Chuck Seitz, CEO; Dr. Ruth Sivilotti, Member of the Technical Staff; Marty Stewart, Executive Assistant; Tim Sticklinski, Director of Sales – Western Region; and Louise Toussaint, Inside Sales Coordinator.
We're now looking forward to ISC2006, to be held 27-30 June 2006 in Dresden, Germany, and to SC06, to be held in 12-18 November 2006 in Tampa, Florida.
21 November 2005