Supercomputer Power on a Shoestring Budget: Linda and Paradise for Red Hat Linux

SCIENTIFIC's software brings accelerated performance to organizations that need more computing power for their applications. SCIENTIFIC's Linda and Paradise enable multiple processors and systems to be linked together and act as one. By combining speed with a high level of fault tolerance, SCIENTIFIC's tools deliver supercomputer capabilities, even on a network of PCs. The company has a well-established reputation for enabling businesses to get their difficult tasks done faster and more reliably than ever before.

For some time, Linux developers have attempted to develop systems for computer clusters in order to accomplish computationally intensive tasks more cost efficiently. Specific development projects have addressed emerging applications in fields such as chemistry, computational biology, and oil and gas exploration. Most Linux users have found the complexity of creating parallel solutions on networked clusters to be daunting. Linda and Paradise will dramatically decrease the effort necessary to create, deploy and administer such solutions.

"SCIENTIFIC has always been committed to supporting all platforms used in high-performance computing," said Dr. Andrew Sherman, vice president of Scientific Computing Associates. "With the growth of Red Hat Software and the growing acceptance of Linux, it is only natural that we'd extend our products to this platform."

According to International Data Corp., Linux was the fastest-growing operating environment in 1998, growing more than 212 percent and capturing more than 17 percent of all shipments of server operating systems. IDC estimates that Linux now has more than 10 million users worldwide.

Linda and Paradise facilitate the development of parallel and distributed computing applications. Linda, introduced in the mid-1980s, was the first commercial product to implement virtual shared memory (VSM) for supercomputers and large workstation clusters. Linda technology is embedded into parallel versions of Gaussian 98, the computational chemistry program based on the methodology for which John Pople won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Paradise, a next-generation evolution of Linda introduced in 1993, supports multiple VSMs and provides for fault-tolerant distributed computing on heterogeneous platforms.

Linda and Paradise are used in a variety of application areas, including financial and risk analysis, computational chemistry and biology, seismic analysis, EDA, and fluid dynamics. Corporate clients include Lehman Brothers, Enron, Motorola, and Amerada Hess.

A recent article "Linux Gushes Savings for Oil Giant" (Computerworld, May 3, 1999) describes an application developed by Amerada Hess using Linda for Red Hat Linux that makes it possible for geologists to render detailed 3-D seismic images of the sea floor. The application was moved from an IBM SP2 to a 32-node Linux cluster, a move that saves Hess nearly $2M, according to Vic Forsyth, Amerada Hess' Houston-based manager of geophysical systems. "Without Linda, a rewrite would have been required that would have delayed implementation by months," said Forsyth.

Development toolkits for Red Hat Linux start at $1,500 for non-commercial organizations and $4,995 for commercial companies. Various training and support options are available. For more information about Linda and Paradise for Red Hat Linux, contact SCIENTIFIC at (203) 777-7442, visit the company's web page at www.LindaSpaces.com, or e-mail .