The Scientific Computing and Visualization group in the Office of Information Technology operates and manages resources for high performance computing and communications, scientific visualization and computer graphics. These facilities include a supercomputer cluster of SGI/Cray Origin2000 systems, an SGI Power Challenge Array the Laboratory for Virtual Environments, a collection of distributed SGI workstations, and the Computer Graphics Laboratory.
The SGI/Cray Origin2000 systems is the latest addition to
our supercomputing facility. Our current system consists of two 32-processor
machines, Lego.bu.edu and Slinky.bu.edu, and two
64-processor machines, Playdoh.bu.edu and Jacks.bu.edu. Combined
this system has 192 MIPS R10000 processors running at 195 MHz, 768 MB of
high-speed cache memory, 24 GB of main memory, and approximately
250 GB of disk (to be installed later this year). The system has a peak
speed of approximately 75 GFlops. All of the machines in the cluster
will be interconnected via HiPPI.
Our first 32-processor machines was installed and operational on October 4, 1996 and was one of the first installations of a SGI/Cray Origin2000 systems outside of SGI. Our most recent expansion of this system to 192-processors was announced on October 1, 1997.
Lego, Slinky, and Playdoh are currently available for production use, while Jacks is available for friendly user testing.
Additional information is available on
our production Origin2000 hardware, as well as its
configuration and
usage procedures.
Each of these machines has been designated for a particular set of
tasks: Tonka for interactive use and single-processor batch
jobs; Tinker for multiprocessor batch jobs, and Ursa-major
(originally the server for the Bear cluster)
for visualization. Additionally, each of the machines will run
background batch jobs when it is not busy serving its primary function.
Additional information is available on the
PCA hardware, as well as its
configuration and
usage procedures.
The Pyramid Systems Immersadesk provides a large, semi-immersive,
multi-observer display. It has a 4-foot by 5-foot rear-projected screen, uses
an Ascension Spacepad system for hand and head tracking, and a "wand" for
navigation and interaction with the environment. Programs for the Immersadesk
are built on the CAVE library.
The Virtual Research VR6 head-mounted system provides an immersive display
for one person. It directs a separate 640x480 pixel display to each eye.
Two video streams are produced by an SGI Multi-Channel Option system attached
to the Onyx.
Head and hand motion are tracked by an Ascension Flock-of-birds
system, and finger contacts are registered by a pair of Fakespace gloves.
Sound for the virtual reality space is generated by an
SGI Indigo, Ken.bu.edu, and
a Kurzweil 2500R sampling synthesizer,
and delivered to a multi-channel speaker array via a MIDI-controlled
Yamaha 03D digital mixing console. Event-driven audio sample playback, 3D
sound localization, and real-time sound generation are supported.
Most of the
SCV Software Packages
are available on the Distributed Workstations.
All SCF users automatically get an account on all of the "bear"
SGI machines. Other individuals in departments which host one of these SGI
systems may request an account on that specific SGI from the departmental
systems administrator.
Most of the
SCV Software Packages
are available on the Computer Graphics Laboratory workstations,
including CGL itself.
The Graphics Lab is open approximately 100 hours a week during the normal
academic year.
(See CGL Hours).
Whenever the Lab is open, student graphics consultants
are available to assist in the use of the hardware and software.
The Lab also has available a collection of
hardcopy reference manuals.
These facilities are available for faculty, graduate students, and students
in courses who need the specialized capabilities of the Lab. Applications
for accounts are available at the main office of Information Technology.
All user of the SCF automatically receive an account to use
the workstations in the Lab.
The Graphics Lab also provides a variety of
hardcopy and production services, including
two kinds of color prints and overhead transparencies,
35mm slides, single frame and real time video recording and simple video
post production. A nominal fee is charged for these services (See
rates).
Finally, the Graphics Lab provides access to a number of "virtual reality"
tools. Two lab machines (rect.bu.edu and schooner.bu.edu) are
equipped with stereo display capability and CrystalEyes glasses can be checked
out from the desk to view certain applications in stereo. The Graphics Lab
serves as a gateway to the
Laboratory for Immersive Virtual Environments
and LIVE users must have a CGL account as a prerequisite to using the
facilities independently.
SGI Power Challenge Array
Our Power Challenege Array (PCA) is a 38-processor, 3-way array comprised of
an 18-processor Power Challenge, a 12-processor Power Onyx, and an 8-processor
Power Onyx, respectively named
Tinker.bu.edu
Tonka.bu.edu, and
Ursa-major.bu.edu.
LIVE: Laboratory for Virtual Environments
SCV's virtual reality laboratory supports research on virtual
environments, by providing hardware and software for two types of immersive
experience.
Each of these systems use stereoscopic display to create the illusion
of three dimensions, head-tracking to update the viewer's position, and
hand-held or hand-worn input devices to interact with the scene.
They are driven by a
two processor SGI Power Onyx, named Barbie.bu.edu, equipped with
RealityEngine II graphics.
Distributed SGI Workstations
SCV operates a collection of
SGI
Indigo-2 workstations which are distributed
throughout the campus. Each workstation is equipped with a 150MHz MIPS R4000
processor rated at 60.6 floating point Specmarks, 64 MB of memory, 3.4 GB
of local disk and
an "Extreme" graphics subsystem capable of rendering over 1.2 million 3D
lines or
200,000 3D polygons per second.
These workstations are intended for scientific
visualization, computer graphics, program development and other interactive
tasks.
These SGI machines, the so-called "bears", are located as follows:
Compute intensive and other long running, non-interactive jobs should
be run on the
SGI Power Challenge Array or
Origin 2000.
Computer Graphics Laboratory
The Computer Graphics Laboratory provides general access to high-end graphics
workstations.
The workstations in the Laboratory include approximately twenty
SGI O2 workstations and SGI Indy workstations.
In general, these workstations
are full color (24 bits) and have hardware accelerated 3D graphics.
An SGI O200, cgl.bu.edu, provides timesharing for remote users and a
second SGI O200, cglfs.bu.edu, acts as the file server for the cluster.