DOD to fight fire with Linux supercluster -- GCN

DOD to fight fire with Linux supercluster

Mar 02, 2001

The Defense Department's first large-scale Linux supercluster will fight, among other things, forest fires.

The new cluster at the Maui High-Performance Computing Center in Kihei, Hawaii, consists of 256 IBM eServer x330 thin servers, each with two 933-MHz Pentium III processors, said Frank Gilfeather, the center's executive director. The cluster runs the new Linux 2.4 kernel for improved multiprocessing performance, Gilfeather said.

In addition to modeling aircraft aerodynamics and battle strategy, the cluster will compute detailed regional weather models for the Forest Service. Such simulations, with resolution down to 3 kilometers, could help predict the intensity and spread rate of forest fires.

'P. Daukantas

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