Linux in Government: Navy Sonar Opens New Opportunities for Linux Clusters and IBM G5 servers

Lockheed Martin delivered a High Performance Computing
(HPC) solution to the US Navy last year to run sonar
systems in nuclear submarines. The solutions involved
Apple Xserve systems using G4 processors and a Red
Hat Linux-based operating system. While few people
noticed the announcements made by Terra Soft, makers
of Yellow Dog Linux, the event triggered ripples in
the industry.

The Lockheed Martin Linux systems varied in two
respects from the standard solution of the Apple
Xserve. First, the solution did not use Apple's Mac OS
X operating system. Secondly, Lockheed Martin built
their own chassis and only used the internals of
the Xserve. Lockheed Martin wanted the G4 PowerPC
chips and Linux to provide a low heat, low power
consumption solution. On a nuclear submarine, such
features are essential.
In the past, the Navy relied heavily on
older embedded solutions, which offered little
ability to deploy software. The embedded systems,
for example, could not adapt to Web Services that
deliver geographic information (GIS) needed in the
sonar process. A HPC Linux solution gave users
the ability to adapt to various formats of data and
encryption, which is critical to the timely delivery
of data.
The PowerPC opened a whole new era, since it
enabled engineers to use software, not hardware, for
large computing jobs. Lockheed Martin's engineers
discovered they could do more with a PowerPC with
AltiVec than a traditional Digital Signal Processor
(DSP), because it allows for an adaptive, flexible
computing platform.
AltiVec(tm) is Motorola's trademark for the
first PowerPC Single Instruction, Multiple Data (SIMD) extension. AltiVec was jointly
developed by Motorola, IBM, and Apple. This same SIMD
technology is called Velocity Engine by Apple. When
IBM talks about this particular technology option they
use VMX, the technology's original code name.

A SIMD system packs multiple data elements into
a single register and performs the same calculation
on all of them at the same time.
In the Lockheed Martin solution, Terra
Soft provided software engineering and support
services. Modifications included device driver
enhancements, kernel development, tuning firmware to
allow serial port terminal control. They also aided
in performance testing and helped with third party
engineering and systems integration.
The integrated solution allowed Lockheed Martin
to meet the requirements of the Navy's contract for
sonar systems for nuclear submarines. The
key to the solution involved a specific form-factor,
processor density and Linux. Unfortunately, Red Hat
does not offer a PowerPC port of their own software.
From Under the Sea to the Skies In addition to using Linux in for sonar in
nuclear submarines, Lockheed Martin demonstrated a
further commitment to Linux by awarding a contract
to CSP for use in the Navy's advanced E-2C Hawkeye
aircraft. CSP Inc., based in Billerica, Massachusetts
won the bid for the Hawkeye with their 2000 SERIES
MultiComputer products. The MultiComputer division of
CSP supplies high-performance Linux cluster systems
for a defense applications, including radar, sonar
and surveillance signal processing. CSP features Linux HPC products such as
their FastCluster server products. The company uses the
Myrinet interconnect standard for MPI interprocessor
communications, PowerPC processors with AltiVec
technology and Yellow Dog Linux which they claim as
the industry standard Operating System for PowerPC.
CSP also says that they use a full compliment
of vectorizers, compilers, development tools
and run-time performance libraries from the Linux
community. Their solutions provide instant booting
from a cold start, error-correcting memory, a fault
tolerant MPI-like library, hot-swappable hardware,
extended environmental specifications and built-in
test.
Does IBM Takes the Hint? The High Performance Computing (HPC) market
remains a bright spot in the technology sector. This
time last year, Intel-based platforms appeared to have
the edge in the market. For example, Linux Networx was
selected to build the cluster of 1408 dual-processor
Opteron servers for Los Alamos Labs. However, most
HPC wins went to HP and IBM came up short to companies
like Linux Networx and Penguin Computing.
The Harvard Research Group wrote in HRG
Assessment: HP High Performance Computing LC Series
that:
The Linux cluster market in 2003 was more
than 1/3 of the overall Linux server market in terms
of revenue. HP dominated the worldwide Linux server
market with about 29% of revenue market share and
Linux servers provided over 25% of HP's HPTC market
share of 37%. The worldwide Linux cluster market
is expected to grow faster than the worldwide Linux
server market over the next 2 -3 years as transition
continues to take place from RISC/Unix technology
to industry standard server and operating system
technology. This growth will occur because HPC buyers
are focused on price/performance, and Linux clusters
have a 5x to 20x price/performance advantage over
previous generation RISC/Unix platforms.
The new IBM eServer OpenPower 720 On September 13th, IBM
introduced
a new
Power5 server tuned for Linux.

Contrary to Harvard Research Group's belief
that a transition will occur from RISC to Intel,
IBM seems to be betting on RISC again. They
may be right, the PowerPC could help them capture
market share in the fastest growing sector of the
technology market.What About Apple? On August 27th, O'Grady's Powerpage
reported delays in Apple's ability to deliver its
own Xserve, iMac, G5 server and desktop computers.
The delays reported by Apple has revolved
around IBM's inability to deliver the G5 chip.
If IBM has trouble meeting their deliveries to
Apple, you might ask why they are heavily marketing
their own new OpenPower series. The answer
goes back last year's win by Lockheed Martin and the
Navy's sonar solution.
High Performance Linux server deployment
has increased significantly. IBM has been on the
hunt for wins in this space and has taken internal
criticism for losing to what management considers
inferior competitors.
If Lockheed Martin had to buy Apple Xserves
and tear them out of their chassis to get to the IBM
G4 chip, that indicates a preference for the chip
not the Apple server. IBM can now offer hardware
platforms that have a specific form-factor, high
density processors and Linux. That provides IBM with an edge in a market
catering to more than nuclear submarines. As mentioned
above, military aircraft also use sonar arrays.
Department of Energy laboratories use large clusters
as do places like Los Alamos. Emergency Response
Network Systems such as those used to manage storms
such as the three hurricanes in Florida. In spite of the wins Apple has touted in the
HPC space, their director of HPC resigned because he
did not believe Apple was serious about the market. If
Apple has more interest in equipping BMW's with iPods,
perhaps IBM doesn't feel that bad about meeting their
own needs first.What About Linux in Government? On their IBM eServer OpenPower 720 web page,
IBM states
that the 720 is
available with SUSE LINUX
Enterprise Server 9 (SLES9) only. It is not supported by any of the
variants of Red Hat Linux.
In today's government environment, Red Hat
has captured a commanding market share.
Much of Red Hat's success exists
because of partners like HP, Dell and Oracle. Large
government contractors, including Lockheed Martin, consider
themselves Red Hat shops. If IBM intends to penetrate the government HPC
sector, they will need to partner with Red Hat. But,
will Red Hat choose to provide a version for the
PowerPC? Much depends on the real commitment to
the Linux Standards Base and time. Meanwhile, a
small Linux distributor has picked up a significant
amount of business because they ported to
the PowerPC.

Tom Adelstein lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife, Yvonne, and works as a Linux and open-source software consultant locally and nationally. He's the co-author of the upcoming book Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop, published by O'Reilly and Associates. Tom has written numerous articles on Linux technical and marketing issues as a guest editor for a variety of publications. His latest venture has him working as the webmaster of JDSHelp.org