High Performance Computing Environments Without the Fuss: The Bootable Cluster CD

Diesburg, Sarah; Gray, Paul A.; Joiner, David

doi:10.1109/ipdps.2005.244

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Since it is managed locally, users have more flexibility to install or update the software without going through a long procedure. Another example of high-performance cluster systems is the Bootable Cluster CD (BCCD) [Diesburg et al 2005]. This is a bootable CD image that boots up into a preconfigured distributed computing environment.…”

Section: Educational Purpose Cluster Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing an affordable high-performance computing for teaching-oriented computer science curriculum

Abuzaghleh

Goldschmidt

Elleithy

et al. 2013

ACM Trans. Comput. Educ.

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The main objective of this poster is to present an affordable and easy-to-use high performance cluster system that can be used for the classroom in teaching-oriented computer science curriculum. In order to address this, we design and implement an affordable high performance cluster system that is based on PlayStation 3  . PS3 is a well-known for game console manufactured by Sony. Since each PS3 console has IBM Cell BE processor that consists of 8 Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs) and 1 Power Processing Element (PPE), it can be used as a processing node with multiplecore processor in the cluster system.In addition, the implemented cluster system has been used for new and existing computer science courses, such as CPSC 592: Parallel and Distributed Database, CPSC 590: Parallel and Distributed Processing, and CPSC 591: Parallel Programming. Multimedia Information GroupFor the affordable high performance computer, it needs to satisfy with the following requirements: (1) price (2) processor power (3) scalability (4) easy to use.In order to satisfy the aforementioned requirements, we adapt PlayStation 3 (PS3) based cluster system for the high performance computing environment.PlayStation, PS in abbreviated, is a video game console manufactured by Sony. The console has attracted considerable attention as a computing node because of the high performance of CELL processor used in PS3 with significantly low price comparing to other processors.In order to offer HPC related courses under teaching-oriented curriculum, such as Distributed and Parallel system, Parallel Programming or Distributed and Parallel Database, we need affordable infrastructure where student and instructor can design, implement and test the HPC system. An alternative approach for the HPC is cluster-based computing system because of its flexibility and feasibility of high computing power with relatively low cost. In addition, open source software including operating systems (i.e., Linux) and programming SDK help to reduce the cost, even make us easy to implement and use them. Therefore, we design and implement an affordable high performance cluster system that is based on PlayStation 3. PS3 is a well-known for game console. Since each PS3 device has IBM Cell BE processor that consists of 8 Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs) and 1 Power Processing Element (PPE), it can be used as a processing node with multiple-core processor in the cluster system. 6 PS3 are connected each other through gigabit ethernet to form a cluster system. In addition, Fedora Core 12 Linux is installed as an operating system as well as IBM Cell SDK and Open-MPI as parallel programming software. All of them are open source software and easy to use in the classroom. This lineup is not only for educational purpose, but also used for military and industrial solutions.

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Section: Educational Purpose Cluster Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing an affordable high-performance computing for teaching-oriented computer science curriculum

Abuzaghleh

Goldschmidt

Elleithy

et al. 2013

ACM Trans. Comput. Educ.

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“…As high performance computing has increasingly relied on commodity components and open source operating systems, many programs that would have required a vector supercomputer, specialized hardware, or commercial compilers now run on Linux and compile with GCC or GFORTRAN. 38 For example, GADGET-2 compiles on standard Linux systems, and while additional software needs to be installed, [39][40][41][42] it is freely available and compiles easily on standard GNU/Linux systems. So, if a Linux workstation or cluster is available, students can install and run GADGET-2, which can run on a single CPU or a large cluster.…”

Section: Lowering Of Supercomputer Based Laboratory Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The freely downloadable bootable cluster CD ͑BCCD͒ is a live-CD based cluster environment that runs entirely in RAM on standard personal computers and allows an instructor to temporarily turn a computer lab into a Linux cluster in a matter of minutes and later return the lab to its original state. 42 The BCCD includes standard parallel computing tools such as parallel virtual machine and MPI. Additionally, recent advances have been made in "kit clusters," such as the LittleFe cluster and Microwulf, where students can build working portable Linux clusters for the cost of a laptop.…”

Section: Lowering Of Supercomputer Based Laboratory Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supercomputer based laboratories and the evolution of the personal computer based laboratory

Joiner

Panoff

Gray

et al. 2008

American Journal of Physics

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The increase in availability of open source research quality simulation software coupled with a reduction in barriers to high performance computer hardware access and new methods for adding interactivity to server-side web services have created a rich environment for the development of supercomputer based laboratories to augment the many personal computer based activities currently in use in the physics classroom. An exemplary supercomputer based laboratory is presented using the N-body problem applied to galactic structure.

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“…The Rescue mode can be used to troubleshoot a system that is no longer bootable. It loads the necessary rescue environment from the second stage unit [1] and gives the user a shell to access a system. There are two stages in a Linux boot loader.…”

Section: Introduction Kickstart Is a System For Automated Installamentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Level Kick Start Server

Ravi¹,

Venkatakrishnan²

2013

IJCTE

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To set up an operating system on hundreds of machines is a daunting task. To automate this process the concept of a kickstart server may be used. While this system has its merits it fails in a large scale environment where high performance and availability is required. This paper focuses on utilizing the available resources to optimize the efficiency of a kickstart server in a network. The current kick start server employs one system which acts as the master node and sets up an Operating System and applications in a network of systems. When the scalability increases the performance of the master node drops exponentially. A multi-level kick start server helps overcome these issues. Here one server creates more servers and controls them, thereby reducing the load on the main server and also improving speed and efficiency.

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High Performance Computing Environments Without the Fuss: The Bootable Cluster CD

Abstract: This paper confronts the issue of bringing high performance computing (HPC) education to those who do not have access to a dedicated clustering environments in an easy, fully-functional, inexpensive manner through the use of the "Bootable Cluster CD" (BCCD

Cited by 8 publications

References 2 publications

Implementing an affordable high-performance computing for teaching-oriented computer science curriculum

Implementing an affordable high-performance computing for teaching-oriented computer science curriculum

Supercomputer based laboratories and the evolution of the personal computer based laboratory

Multi-Level Kick Start Server

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