MRI: Acquisition and Analysis of a Multi-Disciplinary Beowulf Cluster

在一级研究型大学中，趋势是构建数百或数千个节点的大规模并行集群，使用低延迟互连（如Myrinet或Infiniband）进行连接。这些集群提供了出色的性能，但它们的费用使它们无法与美国（和世界）的数百所小型大学、学院和社区学院相比。相比之下，Beowulf集群[1]是一个高性能计算平台，由数量不多的pc（通常是48台或更少）、廉价的网络（通常是TCP/IP）、开源操作系统（通常是Linux）和并行编程软件（通常是MPI）组成。通过权衡性能和价格，贝奥武夫集群的低价格使小型大学、学院和社区学院负担得起，这些大学负担不起大型集群。本提案是在加尔文学院建立一个32个节点的贝奥武夫集群，用于多学科研究和教学。加尔文学院是一所不授予博士学位的综合性学院，约有4200名学生和310名教师。根据美国国家科学基金会（NSF）的数据，卡尔文大学是美国培养完成计算机科学博士学位的本科生的学士学位和硕士学位授予机构中排名第一的。根据NRC的数据，卡尔文学院在培养完成科学博士学位的本科生方面在美国同类院校中排名第四。超过25%的学生主修理科。计算机科学系和工程系提供abet认证的课程；化学和生物化学系是acs认证的。

OCI 0722819Calvin CollegeJoel C. AdamsMRI AcquisitionAt tier-1 research universities, the trend is to build massively parallel clusters of hundreds or thousands of nodes, connected using a low-latency interconnect like Myrinet or Infiniband. These clusters provide excellent performance, but their expense puts them out of reach of the hundreds of small universities, colleges, and community colleges across the U.S. (and world).By contrast, the Beowulf cluster [1] is a high performance computing platform consisting of a modest number of PCs (usually 48 or less), an inexpensive network (usually TCP/IP), an open source operating system (usually Linux), and parallel programming software (usually MPI). By trading off performance against price, the Beowulf cluster's low price makes it affordable at small universities, colleges and community colleges that cannot afford a large cluster.This proposal is to build a 32-node Beowulf cluster for multi-disciplinary research and teaching at Calvin College, a non-PhD granting comprehensive college of about 4200 students and 310 faculty. According to NSF data, Calvin is first in the U.S. among baccalaureate and masters granting institutions for producing undergraduates who complete their PhD in computer science.According to NRC data, Calvin is fourth in the U.S. among such institutions for producing undergraduates who complete science PhDs. More than 25% of their students major in the sciences. The Department of Computer Science and the Department of Engineering offer ABET-accredited programs; the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is ACS-accredited.