Dell PowerEdge Server Cluster named to World's Top 500 Supercomputing Sites
System Located at Cornell Helps Researchers Study Wide Range of Real-world ApplicationsRound Rock, Texas, June 14, 2000Dell today announced that its cluster of Dell PowerEdgeTM servers located at Cornell University has been named to the "Top 500 Supercomputing Sites." Comprised primarily of supercomputers and mainframes, the Top 500 listing ranks the cluster of 64 Dell PowerEdge servers located at the Cornell Theory Center (CTC) among the 500 highest performing, most complex supercomputers in the world. This is the first time a system from Dell has been included on this prestigious list.
Named "Velocity", the cluster of Dell PowerEdge servers enables researchers at Cornell to study complex, real-world applications previously reserved for multimillion-dollar supercomputers or mainframes. A server cluster is usually defined as two or more interconnected servers that perform as a highly efficient system. Researchers are using Velocity to study a variety of computational science and engineering applications, including:
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Multi-scale material simulation, which studies how cracks form, from as small as the atomic level to as large as machine parts and building materials. This research can help scientists study cracks in airplane wings, learn why dams break and determine what happens to buildings and other structures during an earthquake.How protein folds, and how enzymes, for example, change shape. This research is designed to lead to new drugs to attack diseases such as Alzheimer's, cancer and AIDS.
"We have been using Dell's server cluster, Velocity, with great success since it was installed last year," said Thomas F. Coleman, CTC director. "The research we're conducting at Cornell on the Dell cluster should have a lasting impact on a broad spectrum of science and engineering fields. Dell has been a great partner in helping us bring the system online and we have been impressed with both our relationship with Dell and the tremendous power and reliability of the Dell cluster."
There are several Dell clusters at CTC. Velocity, which made the Top 500, is a cluster of 64 Dell PowerEdge 6350 Servers, each of which has four Intel® Pentium® III XeonTM 500 megahertz (MHz) processors, 4 gigabytes of RAM and 50 gigabytes of disk space. The servers are connected to a Dell PowerVaultTM 200S Storage system with 4 terabytes of storage capacity, and a 4 terabyte Dell PowerVault 130T Tape Library.
Velocity+, a second, more powerful cluster of Dell PowerEdge servers, was recently installed but has not yet been benchmarked. "We expect the performance of Velocity+ to exceed Velocity," noted David Lifka, CTC associate director for systems. He added that Velocity is one of the first systems running Microsoft® Windows® 2000 to appear in the top 500.
The list of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers was unveiled recently during the Supercomputer 2000 conference in Mannheim, Germany. Experts from the University of Tennessee and the University of Mannheim, Germany compile the "Top 500 Supercomputing Sites" list twice a year. The list, which first began in 1993, is available at www.top500.org.
About Dell
Dell is the world's leading direct computer systems company, based on revenues of $27 billion for the past four quarters, and is a premier provider of products and services required for customers to build their Internet infrastructures. The company ranks No. 56 on the Fortune 500, No. 210 on the Fortune Global 500 and No. 3 on the Fortune "most admired" lists of companies. Dell designs, manufactures and customizes products and services to customer requirements, and offers an extensive selection of software and peripherals. Information on Dell and its products can be obtained on the World Wide Web at www.dell.com.
