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Sandia Deploys Force10 TeraScale E-Series in World's Fifth Fastest Cluster to Speed Advanced Computations

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 February 2006, 09:00 CST

Force10 Networks today announced that Sandia National Laboratories is leveraging the high density and resiliency of the TeraScale E-Series family of switch/routers in its newest cluster to interconnect more than 4,000 Dell PowerEdge servers. The new Dell-based cluster, nicknamed Thunderbird, has an approximate aggregate memory of 24 Terabytes and can process 60 trillion operations per second (Teraflop). According to the most recent Top500.org ranking, the Sandia Thunderbird cluster is the fifth fastest supercomputer in the world.

"Thunderbird more than quadruples our institutional computing capacity and allows us to meet a significant portion of the pent up demand for greater processing capacity," said John Zepper, computing systems manager at Sandia National Laboratories, part of the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. "The Force10 E-Series supports high Gigabit Ethernet densities, which greatly simplified the infrastructure we needed to support such computing capacity."

The Force10 TeraScale E-Series interconnects more than 8,000 processors, enabling a high speed computing infrastructure that provides Sandia with the added capacity it needs to rapidly perform calculations and computing tasks. The TeraScale E-Series, fitted with the industry's only 90-port Gigabit Ethernet cards, provides the high speed Gigabit Ethernet connections to each server as well as the line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet backbone that interconnects all servers. And with its unique three CPU architecture, which distributes switching, routing and management functionality between three distinct processors, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series ensures maximum network uptime.

The combination of industry-leading density and unmatched resiliency of the Force10 TeraScale E-Series enable Sandia to reduce the total cost of owning and operating the cluster. The TeraScale E-Series processes more traffic per system, reducing the number of systems Sandia requires to connect its 8,000 processors. Fewer systems reduce capital expenses at the outset but also reduce operating costs such as management, power, cooling and engineering support over the life of the cluster.

"The sheer number of calculations and computations Sandia runs every day require a vast resource of computing capacity that can quickly process data and provide analysis," said Mark Cooper, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Force10 Networks. "With the Force10 TeraScale E-Series anchoring its Thunderbird cluster, Sandia can rapidly perform these calculations over an infrastructure that is vastly easier to manage and maintain."

In addition to interconnecting the servers in the cluster, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series also provides the command and control infrastructure for the Thunderbird cluster, which is Sandia's second institutionally maintained cluster. Thunderbird is referred to as a capacity cluster because it is ideally suited to perform many mid-sized tasks with extreme rapidity rather than one huge task across its entire system.

Force10's TeraScale E-Series leads the industry in density, performance and resiliency. The TeraScale E-Series supports 1,260 Gigabit and 224 Ten Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single chassis and can process one billion packets per second, the highest in the industry. And, with support for an industry-leading one million access control lists (ACLs), the TeraScale E-Series provides scalable protection against denial of service attacks.

About Force10 Networks

Force10 Networks is the pioneer in high performance switching and routing. Based on a revolutionary system architecture that delivers best-in-class resiliency and massive scalability, Force10's TeraScale E-Series switch/routers ensure predictable application performance, increase network availability, and reduce operating costs. Today, many of the world's largest Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks depend on Force10 Networks. For additional information, please visit the company's website at www.force10networks.com.

Force10, E-Series, TeraScale and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.

Source: Business Wire

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