The Case for a Hierarchical System Model for Linux Clusters

Abstract

The computer industry today is no longer driven, as it was in the 40s, 50s and 60s, by High-performance computing requirements. Rather, HPC systems, especially Leadership class systems, sit on top of a pyramid investment mode. Figure 1 shows a representative pyramid investment model for systems hardware. At the base of the pyramid is the huge investment (order 10s of Billions of US Dollars per year) in semiconductor fabrication and process technologies. These costs, which are approximately doubling with every generation, are funded from investments multiple markets: enterprise, desktops, games, embedded and specialized devices. Over and above these base technology investments are investments for critical technology elements such as microprocessor, chipsets and memory ASIC components. Investments for these components are spread across the same markets as the base semiconductor processes investments. These second tier investments are approximately half the size of the lower level of the pyramid. The next technology investment layer up, tier 3, is more focused on scalable computing systems such as those needed for HPC and other markets. These tier 3 technology elements include networking (SAN, WAN and LAN), interconnects and large scalable SMP designs. Above these is tier 4 are relatively small investments necessary to buildmore » very large, scalable systems high-end or Leadership class systems. Primary among these are the specialized network designs of vertically integrated systems, etc.« less