Apple G5 XServe Clusters Arrive

August 23, 2004 - The ISFS project received its primary, high performance computer systems late June. These two state-of-the-art, Apple G5 XServe clusters will enable high performance parallel processing of statistical models for invasive species forecasting. RIO (formerly referred to as 'FireAnt') is a 10 dual processor cluster and ROCKY a 5 dual processor cluster.

These two systems were installed over the summer, RIO at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and ROCKY at the USGS Fort Collins Science Center (FORT). These systems will support ongoing research, development and production of the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS). that NASA, USGS and their partners are developing. The Invasive Species Analysis & Modeling Service (ISAMS), a component of the ISFS, has been installed on both ROCKY & RIO and is in-production at both sites. With ROCKY installed at FORT and integrated with ISAMS, the time to process models and produce predictive maps has been vastly reduced, thus improving overall productivity for USGS scientists, engineers & managers.

Background

February 23, 2004 - The ISFS project purchased these systems to enable high performance parallel processing of statistical models for invasive species forecasting.

Each cluster will be made up of a server node and cluster nodes. Each individual computer has a processing speed of 2 Giga-Hertz (GHz), with 2 Giga-bytes of memory for the server nodes (1 GB for the cluster nodes), and 80 Giga-bytes of internal disk storage. The server node will be equipped with an additional 500 Gigabytes of disk storage, and the cluster is connected to a 3.0 Terrabyte Xserve Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) system via high-speed fibre-channel cable, bringing the total disk capacity of the 10-node cluster at Goddard to 4.3 Terra-bytes! The entire cluster is connected together via high-speed gigabit Ethernet. The computer system at Ft. Collins is nearly identical, and consists of five dual processor Apple G5s and a 1.5 Terra-byte RAID. The systems are expected to go online in time for the May Science Team Meeting.

+ download cluster specs

+ view pics of installation


+ learn more about the Apple XServe