From http://www.cica.indiana.edu/iu_hpc/paragon/paragon.text.html: The Intel Paragon is a distributed memory multiprocessor. Each node consists of two Intel i860 microprocessors, one for computing and one for message-passing (see Hardware Configuration), 16MB memory, and a network interface. The individual nodes are arranged on a two dimensional mesh and communicate with each other by exchanging messages over the mesh. Messages are addressed to a particular node or all nodes allocated to a user's job. The memory at each node is only accessible to processes running on that node unless the contents of memory are sent to other nodes as explicitly constructed and sent messages The nodes are arranged in three partitions: a service partition, a compute partition, and an I/O partition. The compute partition may be subdivided into subpartitions and allocated to several users simultaneously. Nodes of the service partition handle interactive log- ins and provide a full set of OSF/1 user services such as user shells, editors, and compilers. Programs run in the service partition consist of single, independent processes. Nodes in the compute partition run parallel applications: user-written programs that consist of groups of cooperating processes. All the processes in a parallel application run in a subpartition of the compute partition specified by the user; they may or may not use all the processors in the partition. Although a parallel computer utilizes many processors, its individual nodes can be simple. Each node's memory is directly accessible only to that node; nodes share information with other nodes by passing messages over the network. Although the nodes appear to the programmer and user to be a single system, every process in a supercomputer has a different process ID from any other process running in the system, no matter what node the processes are running on. In addition, all nodes share a single file system and have equal access to the system's I/O facilities. From Intel brochure: Hardware Features 5.0 GFLOPS Peak Performance 66 32MB GP Compute Nodes (2.1 GBytes of Dist. Memory) 14.0 GB RAID Modules (4.0 GBytes Mass Storage) 1 32MB GP Boot Node with 4.0 GB Raid Module (4.0 GBytes) 1 32MB GP SCSI I/O Nodes 1 32MB GP Ethernet Node 2 32MB GP Service Nodes 1 4mm DAT Backup Tape Drive 1 Internal Intel 486-based Diagnostic Subsystem 2 XP/S System Cabinets 23 GBytes of Total Distributed Memory Software Features Operating System Software Includes: -Paragon OSF/I Operating Sysytem -TCP/IP Support Network File System (NFS) -Multi-user Resource Accounting & Control Software (MACS) - Network Queuing System (NQS) Software Development Tools Include: - Interactive Parallel Debugger and Monitor -System Visualization & Performance Analysis Tools -Basic Math Library (FFTs and BLAS levels 1, 2 and 3) -Optimizing ANSI C Complier -Assembler, Linker, Loader and Object Code Management Tools Product.......Paragon XP/S-5 with 1 year Warranty List Price....$1,495,000
