The National Center for Supercomputing Applications will use the computer to process 2 trillion calculations per second. That will rank the device among the top five supercomputers in the world, center director Dan Reed said Tuesday. The computer will be used to study atomic particles, biological structures and Einstein's theory of relativity, Reed said.
"We made the Linux choice first, then picked the vendor,'' Reed said. "That indicates the level of our faith in Linux."
IBM, a proponent of Linux, might benefit if the operating system takes sales from OS software sold by rivals Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. Linux, an open-source operating system available free on the Internet, already is well received by scientists and has proven itself in supercomputing, Reed said.
Linux, created by Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds, is growing in popularity in the market for software that runs server computers because it has matured as a reliable operating system and people pay only for customization or installation services, analysts say.
Linux growth "may be a long-term positive for IBM if it can execute its Linux strategy across its server lines,'' Merrill Lynch analyst Thomas Kraemer wrote Tuesday in a note to clients. "IBM may have the right read on the market; its challenge will be to maintain margins while moving to a Linux- centric model."
The supercomputer center's machine will be built in two phases using more than 600 IBM xSeries servers linked with Linux software, according to IBM spokeswoman Lisa Lanspery. The first phase, consisting of 488 servers, will be completed around March and the second around June.
The xSeries is a server using processors from Intel. The second phase will involve servers using Intel's new Itanium chip, Reed said. Each server lists for US$2,400 to US$5,100.
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is at the Champaign-Urbana campus of the University of Illinois. Most research using the supercomputer will be done remotely via the Internet, Reed said.
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