IBM System Cluster 1350

Reduced time to deployment

IBM HPC clustering offers significant price/performance advantages for many high-performance workloads by harnessing the advantages of low cost servers plus innovative, easily available open source software.

Today, some businesses are building their own Linux and Microsoft clusters using commodity hardware, standard interconnects and networking technology, open source software, and in-house or third-party applications. Despite the apparent cost advantages offered by these systems, the expense and complexity of assembling, integrating, testing and managing these clusters from disparate, piece-part components often outweigh any benefits gained.

IBM has designed the IBM System Cluster 1350 to help address these challenges. Now clients can benefit from IBM’s extensive experience with HPC to help minimize this complexity and risk. Using advanced Intel® Xeon®, AMD Opteron™, and IBM PowerPC® processor-based server nodes, proven cluster management software and optional high-speed interconnects, the Cluster 1350 offers the best of IBM and third-party technology. As a result, clients can speed up installation of an HPC cluster, simplify its management, and reduce mean time to payback.

The Cluster 1350 is designed to be an ideal solution for a broad range of application environments, including industrial design and manufacturing, financial services, life sciences, government and education. These environments typically require excellent price/performance for handling high performance computing (HPC) and business performance computing (BPC) workloads. It is also an excellent choice for applications that require horizontal scaling capabilities, such as Web serving and collaboration.

Common features Hardware summary

* Rack-optimized Intel Xeon dual-core and quad-core and AMD Opteron processor-based servers
* Intel Xeon, AMD and PowerPC processor-based blades
* Optional high capacity IBM System Storage™ DS3200, DS3400, DS4700, DS4800 and EXP3000 Storage Servers and IBM System Storage EXP 810 Storage Expansion
* Industry-standard Gigabit Ethernet cluster interconnect
* Optional high-performance Myrinet-2000 and Myricom 10g cluster interconnect
* Optional Cisco, Voltaire, Force10 and PathScale InfiniBand cluster interconnects
* Clearspeed Floating Point Accelerator
* Terminal server and KVM switch
* Space-saving flat panel monitor and keyboard
* Runs with RHEL 4 or SLES 10 Linux operating systems or Windows Compute Cluster Server
* Robust cluster systems management and scalable parallel file system software
* Hardware installed and integrated in 25U or 42U Enterprise racks
* Scales up to 1,024 cluster nodes (larger systems and additional configurations available—contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner)
* Optional Linux cluster installation and support services from IBM Global Services or an authorized partner or distributor
* Clients must obtain the version of the Linux operating system specified by IBM from IBM, the Linux Distributor or an authorized reseller