THOR: A Versatile Commodity Component of Supercomputer Development

Our experience with the THOR Linux cluster described above shows that if we divide the total cost of the machine by the number of processors, we end up with a cost of around $1,500 (CDN) per processor. This is cheaper than conventional supercomputers by more than a factor of ten, assuming reasonable discounts apply. Although there are certainly applications in which conventional supercomputers are irreplaceable, on a price-performance basis, THOR (or Beowulf)-type multiprocessors are more attractive. Another cost advantage of the THOR Linux cluster is the low software cost. GNU's compilers and debuggers, along with free message-passing implementations (MPI) and portable batch-queuing system (PBS), with no yearly fees, offer good low-cost solutions. Better compilers including FORTRAN90, such as the Absoft product, offer significant performance enhancements and debugging tools in the MPI environment.

The comparatively small upfront costs of the THOR Linux cluster are matched by its low running costs. Our experience indicates that, at least for machines as large as THOR, the manpower costs involved with running the machine are low. For example, THOR requires only approximately 30% of the time of a networking/Linux expert. We think this is due to the reliability, design simplicity and accessibility of the commodity component multiprocessor approach. New nodes can be added to THOR on the fly without rebooting any machines; also, problem nodes can be hot-swapped. The node being a conventional PC, probably with a one-year warranty, can either be repaired or thrown away. In fact, hardware and software maintenance costs for THOR have proven to be negligible compared to the annual maintenance fees required by most conventional supercomputer producers. Such fees can be in excess of tens of thousands of dollars per year. The advantages of Beowulf-type clusters like THOR, running Linux, are so numerous that we are not surprised that more and more scientific and commercial users are adopting this approach.

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