Big Helicopter Needs Big SGI Cluster

By Doug Barney

In a recent newsletter we introduced you to SGI’s new high-end Linux 10 blade server that can be prepped with enough Intel Xeons to hit 6 TFLOPS. It’s pretty early to do a full blown user story on this baby, dubbed SGI Altix ICE. Instead you’ll have to be happy with a quick report on how its older Altix XE cluster is being used by Sikorsky Aircraft to design what is reported to be the largest helicopter ever built for the United States armed forces.

The 48-core cluster processes work that used to take four days “in a few hours.” It also allows propulsion engineers to craft ever more complex models, up to 12 million cells in some cases, SGI says.

In thinking about SGI, I remembered that Linux is not the only cluster technology the vendor supports. As of this January, SGI’s grid line will also support Microsoft’s Computer Cluster Server 2003. Here are two stories about how Microsoft plans to use high-performance computing and other techniques to help scientists save the world.

http://redmondmag.com/features/article.asp?EditorialsID=657

http://reddevnews.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=663