[Am-info] IT Advances Research On Climate.....Linux

[Fred A. Miller]

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IT Advances Research On Climate

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore are breaking=20
new ground with their study of the Atlantic Ocean's effect on the=20
climate. The project got a boost 18 months ago when the=20
university chose to run its data collection and analysis on a=20
cluster of Dell PowerEdge servers running Red Hat Linux 6.2.=20

This research couldn't be done without the right IT platform,=20
says Thomas Haine, assistant professor in the department of earth=20
and planetary sciences. Haine's Dell cluster consists of eight=20
Dell 2450 PowerEdge servers with two P3 CPUs, 18 Gbytes of hard=20
drive, and 1 Gbyte of memory each. Data is stored on each server=20
within the cluster, and the cluster is interconnected via two=20
networks. The Dell servers have a Fast Ethernet connection that=20
handles the copying of files and other general=20
system-administration jobs. The cluster also has a faster Myrinet=20
connection from Myricom Inc. that's used for high-speed=20
computations.

Johns Hopkins considered systems from SGI Inc. and Sun=20
Microsystems but ultimately chose Dell because of pricing. "The=20
cluster was about $50,000, but we were never really presented=20
with a like-for-like comparison" with Sun or SGI, Haine says. "We=20
could have done this with Unix but wouldn't have gotten as much=20
for our money. I suspect we would have been looking at twice that=20
from Sun and SGI." - Larry Greenemeier

For the full story, go to:
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=3DeHpj0Bce7K0V20BeoR0A8

And for more, read:
Choosing Linux Over Older Systems
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=3DeHpj0Bce7K0V20BemS0A7

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Fred A. Miller
Systems Administrator
Cornell Univ. Press Services
fm@cupserv.org, www.cupserv.org
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