Big-FE-teragrid-abstract

Big-FE - A cost and power efficient platform for high performance computing education

Alex Lemann(*), Josh McCoy(*), Tobias McNulty(*), Charles Peck. Cluster Computing Group, Earlham College.

Abstract:

There is a shortage of high performance computing (HPC) resources for educational use. Big-FE, short for Focus on Education, is a complete design and hardware prototype for a cost effective, energy efficient, and scalable HPC resource. Big-FE uses a diskless compute node architecture running the open source Bootable Cluster CD distribution. Our design is a synergy of the classic Beowulf commodity-off-the-shelf cluster philosophy and the commercial blade approach to computational cluster design. Leveraging the strengths of each approach, it provides a cost effective computing platform for computational science education.

We measure the energy consumption of the Big-FE prototype and compare it with popular commercial HPC platforms. Our physical layout is organized to minimize both maintenance and cooling costs. We detail the full cost structure—both up-front and on-going—and estimated performance for Big-FE and compare these with popular commercial HPC platforms.

Notes

• Topics to include:
  • Power consumption
  • Packaging and density
  • Cost of purchasing
  • Cost of ownership