x86/x86-64 Clusters
Commodity x86/x86-64 clusters are the most common clusters in use today, combining versatility, reliability, high performance, and cost effectiveness with a large application base.
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Often called "Beowulf"
clusters, x86 (32 bit) and x86_64 (64 bit) clusters
are collections of independent nodes which utilize a private network or networks to team together and
provide amazing computational power. They're normally built using Linux, and administered using common
or in-house written parallel tools.
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Commodity
Clusters provide the most flexibility, significant cost/performance benefits, the best balance between computational load and memory
bandwidth, and do not require as large of a degree of
code optimization as some other architectures. Most parallel applications available today are ported to commodity clusters
and it's very likely your application will run well on one.
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Commodity does not also necessarily mean lower performance. High end x86/x86-64 systems used in HPC clusters are often
significantly more powerful than desktop units, are manufactured with Enterprise quality components, and can have large amounts of
memory and be equipped with low latency high bandwidth
Interconnects
installed.
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One of the major advantages to x86/x86_64 clusters is their flexibility. They can be configured as High Availability,
Storage, or even visualization clusters using GPU technology. Your cluster can contain some or all of these functions.
The possibilities are endless, and your sales engineer can help you configure your new system in a way that best fits
your requirements.
- Aspen has been in the high performance computing manufacturing business since 1982, and has been manufacturing and delivering x86/x86_64 commodity clusters since 1998, the early days of commercially available commodity x86/x86_64 computing. Aspen has delivered thousands of these systems to government institutions, Universities, and commercial companies world wide.
