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Berkeley Lab Buys 160-Processor Cluster Computer to Advance Scientific Computing and Research

In what could be a glimpse into the future of high-performance computing, Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences will buy and operate a 160-processor cluster computer to assess whether such system can meet the day-to-day production demands of a scientific computing center.

Clusters are assemblies of commodity computers designed and networked to operate as a single system. By using off-the-shelf components, clusters can provide a cost-effective balance between price and computer performance. To date, most large scientific commodity clusters are used more for specific research applications than general-purpose production resources for computational science.

Clusters are assemblies of commodity computers designed and networked to operate as a single system. By using off-the-shelf components, clusters can provide a cost-effective balance between price and computer performance. To date, most large scientific commodity clusters are used more for specific research applications than general-purpose production resources for computational science.

"There's been a lot of hype about clusters over the past few years in the world of high-performance computing, but clusters are just now coming into their own," said NERSC Division Director Horst Simon. "Our goal with this new system is to see how well a commercially built cluster can perform in a demanding scientific environment. The cluster architecture could well be the supercomputer of the future and it behooves us to carefully and thoroughly test such a system."