Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 13:00:39 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Linux cluster available for production use

Dear Researcher,

I am very pleased to announce that we will bring the SCF Linux cluster
on-line for general production use on December 1, 2003. This cluster
consists of 54 dual-processor, 1.26 GHz, Pentium 3, Linux nodes interconnected
with a 2.2 Gb/Sec Myrinet network. This cluster represents approximately
135 GFLOPS of additional capacity to the University's scientific
computing facilities. The cluster is also tightly coupled via Myrinet and 
shared filesystems with SCV's Deep Vision Display Wall.

The charging rate for this cluster will be 0.3 SUs per processor
hour, reflecting the relative performance the Linux nodes compared to the
p690 processors. Although we are making the cluster available to all SCF user
on December 1, we will not start charging for usage until January 1, 2004.
We expect the cluster to be a very effective computing platform at
this charging rate for those application that do not require the large,
shared-memory capabilities of the IBM p-series machines. In particular,
single or dual processor jobs and moderate scale MPI codes should run
quite well on this platform.

Please note that the software environment for the cluster is substantially
different than that on the IBM AIX machines, including a different batch
system. Please see the documentation available at: 
http://scv.bu.edu/SCV/Archive/linux-cluster/GettingStarted.html for details
on using the cluster.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to 
contact me by email (glenn@bu.edu) or phone (617-353-1319). 
As always, Kadin Tseng (kadin@bu.edu) or Doug Sondak (sondak@bu.edu)
can assist with any questions regarding programming, software packages
or other issues related to the use of the facilities.

Sincerely,

Glenn Bresnahan