ORNL's First Beowulf:
The Stone SouperComputer
- Summer 1997: LDRD proposal rejected, but opportunity and need too great
- Built from surplus/excess PCs, starting with Intel 486s
- PCs obtained through Swap Shop and contacts from Y-12, K-25, Procurement, and ORNL
- Machine peaked at 128 nodes; nodes were upgraded as more/better surplus PCs became available
- We win the price-to-performance game because direct hardware purchase cost is zero
- Infinite performance-to-price ratio
- Applications: parallel clustering, groundwater models, genetic algorithms, individual-based fish models, mesoscale weather and air quality models