Linux统治超级计算领域的九个理由

Linux统治超级计算领域的九个理由

by Darryl K. Taft

1. Linux在超级计算的历史

In 1994, the first Beowulf Cluster was built at NASA, using Linux, as an alternative to the very expensive HPC supercomputers. “Beowulf Clusters are scalable performance clusters based on commodity hardware, on a private system network, with open-source software (Linux) infrastructure. The designer can improve performance proportionally with added machines. The commodity hardware can be any of a number of mass-market, stand-alone compute nodes as simple as two networked computers, each running Linux and sharing a file system, or as complex as 1,024 nodes with a high-speed, low-latency network.” 1994年，在NASA,使用Linux建立了第一个Beowulf集群，作为昂贵的HPC超级计算机的一种替代品。 “Beowulf集群是基于商用硬件的可扩展的高性能集群，建立在专用的系统网络和开源软件（Linux）基础设施上。设计者可以通过按比例添加机器来提高性能。硬件可以是简单的只需两台联网计算机组成的计算节点，每个节点都运行Linux,并共享一个文件系统，或复杂的像具有高速，低延迟的1,024节点的网络。“

2. 处理器的进化

Until a few years ago, UNIX variants such as AIX, HP-UX, Tru64 UNIX, Solaris and IRIX ruled. The historic cost of HPC or “supercomputers,” including hardware and variants of the UNIX OS, had limited the use of HPC technologies to market segments that could afford expensive systems, and they have been mainly used in academic research, fluid dynamics, oil and gas exploration, computer-aided design and testing, and pharmaceutical and military research. However, Linux has displaced many of these systems in the HPC space. Relatively suddenly, Intel and AMD replaced RISC processors, and the way was paved for Linux to unseat UNIX as the dominant OS, and numerous second-tier vendors established positions in the market. 直到几年前，UNIX的变种，如AIX，HP-UX，Tru64 UNIX，Solaris和IRIX仍统治着超级计算领域。HPC或“超级计算机”的硬件费用和价格高昂的类UNIX系统费用限制了HPC技术的使用，那时HPC主要用于学术研究，流体力学，石油和天然气勘探，计算机辅助设计和测试，以及制药和军事研究。然而，在高性能计算领域,Linux已经大范围的取代原来的价格高昂的系统。突然的，英特尔和AMD取代了RISC处理器，铺平了用Linux替代UNIX的道路，并且众多的二线厂商纷纷发力这个领域。

3. 降低总体成本

The evolution of both lower-cost hardware and Linux has dramatically reduced the cost of the HPC systems. The licensing cost of a custom, self-supported Linux distribution is the same, whether you’re using 20 nodes or 20,000,000 nodes. But most organizations, whether in academia, government or commercial environments, have to rely on a 24/7 vendor-supported and certified OS. Even in these cases, Linux reaps significant savings in both up-front subscription and support computing. 硬件的低成本化和免费的Linux已经大大减少了HPC系统的成本。无论是20个节点,还是20,000,000个节点,其上可定制并且受支持的Linux发行版的许可成本是一样的。但大多数组织中，无论是在学术界，政府还是商业环境，必须依靠一个受供应商24/7支持的操作系统。即使在这种情况下，Linux的仍显著节省前期购买和支撑计算的费用。

4. 可靠,安全,开源

While low price was a key argument for Linux in the past, the market has changed, and today customers and organizations are adopting clusters based on Linux to ensure constant uptime, while still leveraging the flexibility and reliability of open source. Reliability and scalability are the features most commonly cited as reasons for choosing Linux clusters. Scalability allows organizations to start with a small cluster and seamlessly add nodes as processing demands increase. 过去，低价格是Linux的主要优势，现在，市场已经发生变化；目前,消费者和组织都倾向于在保留开源软件的灵活性和可靠性的同时,采用基于Linux的集群系统来保证系统持续无故障运行时间。可靠性和可扩展性这两个特性是选择Linux集群系统时的两个常见理由。可扩展性允许组织机构从一个小规模的集群系统开始一个项目，并能随着项目需求的增长无缝地添加节点。

5. 社区资源

There are a lot of resources available for HPC on Linux; many of them free. Look at the success of other open-source projects, and you see the epitome of strength in numbers. 在Linux平台上，HPC有很多很多可用的资源；而且，大部分资源是免费的。看一下其他开源项目的成功之处，你就会发现人多力量大这个道理是有道理的。

6. 容易管理

Setting up and monitoring a cluster can become very difficult; this is especially true for heterogeneous environments that are dependent on multiple generations of technology that support a variety of applications and multiple user groups. Linux on a cluster of commodity x86 servers is much more economical, in part because Linux clusters have become easy to set up and simple to manage, with vendors and tools specifically built for HPC use cases. 设立和监控一个集群系统是非常困难的；特别是对于依靠多代技术来支持众各种应用程序和多用户组技术的异构环境。商用X86服务器架构的Linux集群系统相对来说是非常经济的，部分原因是：通过专为HPC案例而设的供应商和工具，设置和管理一个Linux集群系统变得容易,简单。

7. 面向创新

Linux has steadily incorporated HPC features over the years. The HPC market is where vendors test out the ideas that will drive tomorrow’s commercial products, such as multi-core processors or power efficiency. The open-source OS very often spearheads technical innovations, a significant role as HPC turns more and more into “high-productivity computing.” 这些年来，Linux都在稳定地融合HPC的特性。HPC市场是供应商测试想法的地方,这些想法可能会催生未来商业产品,如多核处理器或低功耗处理器。开源的操作系统经常引领技术的创新，并把HPC越来越多地转化为“高生产力计算”。

8. 主流生产力

As demand for processing power and speed grows, HPC interests businesses of all sizes, particularly for transaction processing and data warehouses. Commercial HPC use occurs in Hollywood special effects, financial analytics and many other industries. For a growing number of users and vendors, HPC refers not to cores, cycles or flops anymore, but to discovery, efficiency or time to market. For example, an important category within threshold applications is “ultra-scale business computing,” where applications are not traditional HPC workloads, but they require supercomputing levels of scale, thus resulting in using HPC-specific solutions or technologies. 随着对处理能力和速度需求的增长，HPC惠及了各种规模的商业事务，特别是交易处理和数据仓库。商业的HPC使用在 好莱坞特效制作，金融分析和很多其他行业上。而随着用户和供应商数量的不断增长，HPC不再意味着核心，周期和无人问津，而是指发现，效率和投放市场的时间。例如，阈值应用中的一个重要范畴是“超大规模商业运算”，在这个范畴里， 应用程序不是传统意义上的HPC工作负荷，这些程序需要超级计算机的规模水平，因此需要使用特定的HPC解决方案和技术。

9. 巴塞罗那的计算机MareNostrum

One of the most powerful supercomputers in Spain, the MareNostrum, also considered among the most attractive supercomputers ever, runs on Linux. MareNostrum is a supercomputer in the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, the second most powerful in Spain and one of seven supercomputers in the Spanish Supercomputing Network. It was presented by IBM and Maria Jesus San Segundo, the Spanish Minister of Education and Science. 位于西班牙的最强大的超级计算机之一，同时也被认为是有史以来最吸引人的超级计算机，MareNostrum是运行在Linux上的。MareNostrum是放置在巴塞罗那超级计算机中心的一台超级计算机，是西班牙第二强的超级计算机，同时也是西班牙超级计算网络中的7台超级计算机之一。它由IBM和西班牙教育和科学部部长Maria Jesus San Segundo提供。

翻译自:http://www.eweek.com/servers/slideshows/nine-reasons-linux-rules-the-supercomputing-space.html