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Arkansas Red Diamond Supercomputing
Cluster
Red Diamond is a cluster of 128 dual-processor computers using the new
64-bit Intel® Xeon™ processor. Computers are
interconnected with an InfiniBand high-speed
network, supplied by Topspin, which provides data
throughput at over 800 megabytes each second and
latency between computers of less than six
microseconds.
Dell™
is partnering with the
University of Arkansas as the supplier and
integrator of Red Diamond.
Red Diamond is the first supercomputer in Arkansas and will place the
University of Arkansas among research institutions
that cooperate to solve problems by
interconnecting supercomputers to form a global
computing Grid. Its more than ten trillion
characters of external storage and its processing
capability will allow research results from the
University of Arkansas to be accessible to
researchers and to be calculated by researchers on
the Internet worldwide.
Funding for Red Diamond is supplied through a
Major Research Instrumentation Grant (
#0421099)
from the National Science Foundation and additional
support from the University of Arkansas.
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The name "Red Diamond" is chosen as a symbol of the first
supercomputer and unparalleled resource in the
state of Arkansas for new discoveries in science
and engineering. Arkansas is the home of the
world's only public diamond mine and the eighth
largest diamond repository in the world. The
largest diamond ever found in the United States,
originally weighing 40.23 carats, was found in
Arkansas. The color red comes from the school
colors of the University of Arkansas and from the
colors of the Arkansas state flag, which boasts a
diamond on a red field to remember the state as a
place where diamonds are discovered and mined.
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Other Cluster Computing Resources
The Prospero Cluster
This cluster, owned by the Department of Computer Science and Computer
Engineering, has thirty-two cluster nodes and an additional network
access computer. Each computer consists of dual Pentium III 1GHz
processors, with 512MB memory, and connected via two switched
full-duplex Fast Ethernet network interfaces. Funding for Prospero
was provided by the National Science Foundation and EPSCOR.
The ACT Cluster
The Acxiom Cluster Testbed (ACT) cluster consists of seven
dual-processor Pentium III 1GHz computers, each with 512MB memory,
dual EIDE disk RAID subsystems, and connected via Fast Ethernet and
second-generation Myrinet. This cluster was purchased through funding
from Acxiom Corporation and the Arkansas Science and Technology
Authority.
The Kite Cluster
The Kite Cluster consists of dual Pentium III 1GHz
processors, with 512MB memory, and connected via switched
full-duplex Fast Ethernet network interfaces.
Kite is a
Grid resource
in the
SURA NMI Testbed Grid.
The Hawk Cluster
The Hawk Cluster consists of four dual-processor Opteron 64-bit
processor nodes, running in at 1.6GHz and with 2GB memory. Hawk
was purchased through grant
#0410966
from the National Science Foundation as a platform for teaching Grid
computing to undergraduate computer science students.
Condor Pool
A Condor pool is being implemented as a mechanism for wide-area
high-throughput distributed computing. More information about Condor
is available at the Condor
Home Page.
High-Speed Optical Networking
The University of Arkansas is leading the effort within the State of Arkansas
to provide access to high-speed optical networking by working toward a
statewide network that will become a part of the
National Lambda Rail.
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