Acquisition of an Advanced Workstation Cluster for High Performance Computing in Physics

9977582 Hirschi在主要研究仪器计划的支持下，将获得高性能工作站的并行阵列。这些将用于提高中央密歇根大学物理系的科学计算能力。包括16个DEC Alpha 21264处理器的8个SMP工作站将使用快速系统区域网络(SAN)进行连接。数组上的并行化将使用MPI(消息传递接口)来完成。该集群将提供大约32GFLOPS的理论峰值性能，估计成本为6美元/MFLOPS。该集群将满足中央密歇根大学三个非常活跃的物理研究小组的关键硬件需求。这些小组在材料和团簇物理(2组)和核结构物理(1组)方面进行密集的计算研究。包括化学、物理和数学系教员在内的聚合物流体动力学小组也将从这一新能力的使用中受益。目前，这些小组使用各种单独的工作站，其中只有一台的性能接近1GFLOPS。因此，新阵列将使可用的峰值计算能力增加至少30倍。这样的性能提升将使CMU的这些团队能够解决涉及更大和更复杂系统的令人兴奋的新研究问题。计划中的高性能工作站并行阵列还将为CMU的本科生和硕士学生在并行计算领域提供重要的新培训机会。在重大研究仪器计划的支持下，将购买一组并行的高性能工作站。该阵列将为硕士和本科生的研究项目和研究培训提供更强的计算能力，因此将对CMU的基础设施产生重大影响。

9977582HirschiWith support from the Major Research Instrumentation program, a parallel array of high performance workstations will be acquired. These will be used to improve the scientific computational capability in the Department of Physics at Central Michigan University. Eight SMP workstations comprising sixteen DEC Alpha 21264 processors will be linked using a fast system area network (SAN). Parallelization on the array will be accomplished using MPI, the Message Passing Interface. This cluster will provide a theoretical peak performance of about 32 GFLOPS at an estimated cost of $6/MFLOPS. The cluster will meet critical hardware needs of three very active research groups in physics at Central Michigan University. These groups conduct computationally intensive research in materials and cluster physics (2 groups) and in nuclear structure physics (1 group). A polymer fluid dynamics group, which includes faculty from the departments of chemistry, physics, and mathematics, will also benefit from the use of this new capability. At present these groups use a variety of individual workstations, of which only one has a performance approaching 1 GFLOPS. Thus, the new array will increase the available peak computing power by at least a factor of 30. Such a performance enhancement will permit these groups at CMU to attack exciting new research problems involving larger and more complex systems. The planned parallel array of high performance workstations will also afford important new training opportunities for undergraduate and M.S. students at CMU in the area of parallel computing. A parallel array of high performance workstations will be acquired with support from the Major Research Instrumentation program. This array will provide increased computing power for both research projects and research training of M.S. level and undergraduate students, and thus will have a large impact on the infrastructure at CMU.