On Supercomputer Linux Operating System

According to statistics, more than 90% (or 94.2% to be exact) supercomputers use Linux as their operating system. Therefore, we will try to explore the advantages and features of Linux as the best choice for supercomputer operating systems.

Indeed, no one is more qualified than the team responsible for deploying and maintaining a supercomputer to clarify the capabilities of Linux as a supercomputer operating system. Before we discuss the important features of Linux, let's take a look at what important people in the supercomputer field have to say about Linux; they are asked what the reasons are when choosing Linux as a supercomputer operating system.

Mark Seager is Assistant to the Senior Technical Department at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory operates ten large machines in the Top 500 list, including the most powerful supercomputer in the world: Blue Gene/L and No. 5 Bit of Thunder. Of course, these supercomputers use Linux as an operating system. Mark Seager said: "Linux has dominated the high-performance computing market." High-performance Linux clusters provide the foundation for high-performance computing that can only be achieved with Linux.

Scott Gnau is the chief development officer of Teradata Corporation. The company handles several key tasks and deploys supercomputers to handle compute-intensive tasks. These supercomputers run on Linux. Scott said: "Our solutions are designed to run powerful business intelligence and real-time decision application systems, including fraud detection and prevention, customer segmentation, human resources, and trend forecasting. Our solution runs on Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise. On the server, thanks to its high scalability, reliability, flexibility and ease of use, this operating system is the most suitable Linux operating system for our customers' business environment.We chose Novell and SUSE Linux Enterprise Platform Because it has a set of industry-leading Linux services that can support large-scale mission-critical enterprise environments."

Eddie Epstein, who is responsible for Watson's supercomputer system management, was asked why they chose Linux as a supercomputer operating system. “This project started as an x86-based blade system, and the researchers responsible for management are very familiar with Linux.” This shows that Linux is already well-known among researchers.

Alejandro Ramirez is the head of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) who developed the world’s first ARM-based supercomputer. He mentioned that when choosing Linux as the operating system of a supercomputer, he said: "The widespread support of the Linux operating system is one of the basic elements." He added: "ARM supports Linux very well."

Irene Qualters is senior vice president of software at SGI. Irene mentioned that when choosing Linux as its supercomputer operating system, he said: "At SGI, we are focused on high-performance computing and excellent scalability, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Servers are the choice of many of our Altix and Altix XE customers. Operating system."

As early as 2000, the University of New Mexico established Los Lobos, a virtual supercomputer using Red Hat Linux. The initial investment at that time was $1.5 million. Dr. Frank Gilfeather was appointed as Executive Director of High Performance Computing at the University of New Mexico. Gilfeather said: "We have several customers who will benefit from high-performance computing based on Linux clusters. We think that in the future, this will also be very important for e-commerce - because more and more customers are in the middle of deployment. Parts and message queuing systems, which require the kind of powerful features you see in Linux clusters: This shows that the Linux operating system provides high performance." He further said: "The emergence of large Linux super clusters is attributed to the popularity of PCs. The rapid development of components, the development of high-speed commercial off-the-shelf technology (COTS) networks such as Myrinet, and the rapid adoption of the open software movement have made it possible to establish a true supercomputer at an extremely reasonable cost compared to conventional supercomputers."

Stephen Scott is a research scientist in the computer science department at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and one of the early users/researchers of Linux supercomputers. He said: "The scientific community will like Linux, because it is very similar to the standard Unix." Scott added: "Most of the high-performance environment is Unix, but all the free GNU tools make it extremely easy to deploy Linux, and save money. ”

After understanding some of the opinions expressed by experts, it may be useful to introduce in depth the features that make Linux the best choice for supercomputer operating systems:

1. Linux's modularity The outsider may think that typical Linux is composed of many small basic components, ie modules. Each module performs a different special function. These basic components work together to make the operating system run smoothly. This modularity of Linux makes it easy for everyone, whether they are regular Linux users or supercomputer administrators, to change the operating system to suit their needs. No other operating system can provide this degree of customization, especially Windows. Thus, Linux can be modified for use on supercomputers for specific purposes, especially for enhanced performance or increased energy efficiency. Most supercomputers today use a modified Linux kernel.

2. The versatility of the Linux kernel The Linux kernel is as versatile as possible. This means that as long as a single source code is written, it can run on a large supercomputer as well as a small device or even a handheld device. Whether it is on a large system or a small system, how to use Linux depends entirely on the user. Nor does it require fundamental, major changes to the kernel to be able to run on larger or smaller systems. Generally speaking, the Linux kernel can be configured to be as small as 2MB, or as large as 1GB or 1TB, without spending a lot of time and effort.

3. Scalability By definition, extensibility refers to the ability of a server to adapt to a much larger load. Extensibility can be viewed directly as a measure of efficiency and performance. The system must be extremely extensible, so adding new servers should be effortless. Linux is extremely extensible because it can adapt to new, larger loads with relative ease. This is why you can find Linux running on a supercomputer and Android (using a Linux kernel) to run on mobile phones, refrigerators, and even microwave ovens!

4. Open source Linux is a completely open source free software, a complete set of source code is completely open. This means that supercomputer administrators can customize this operating system at will. In addition, administrators can change the code at any time for maximum performance and highest security (or for any other purpose) in case of a performance failure or security flaw on the supercomputer, rather than wait for proprietary operating system companies to release security. patch.

Supercomputers strive to maximize performance. In general, tasks assigned to a supercomputer require very high speeds to handle computing tasks. In contrast, Windows has a lot of unnecessary processes that are not necessary and only drags down the supercomputer's performance. However, since Windows is a proprietary operating system, code cannot be changed to eliminate unnecessary processes. As far as Linux is concerned, it is entirely possible to change the code and eliminate unnecessary processes, thus improving the performance of the computer.

5. Community Support As an open source operating system, Linux has received strong support from the community. This is unmatched by any other operating system.

6. Low cost When it comes to a large device like a supercomputer, the cost can be a big problem. Deploying Linux on a supercomputer is cost-effective because Linux does not have to pay royalties at all.

The other reason to use Linux as an operating system is that Linux's network support is very good. It is easier to add or remove any trial network devices. No system reboot required! Linux is a stable and reliable operating system that can run on costly large servers and computers without having to worry about too many issues. Finally, Linux is more secure.