The NASA Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS) is part of the
Computational and Information Sciences and Technology Office
(CISTO) of the Exploration Directorate at Goddard Space Flight
Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, MD. This division is dedicated to
providing scientists and engineers with the supercomputing
resources and simulation tools needed to carry out NASA missions
and make scientific discoveries. A Custom Supersystem from Linux
Networx has been ordered for the NCCS to upgrade the computing
systems at GSFC. The system will be comprised of an initial base
unit and a series of scalable computer units. The base unit will
be 128 nodes with two dual-core CPUs in each node for a total of
512 processors and 3.3 teraflops of peak processing. Assuming a
successful integration and test period, a scalable computer unit
with an additional 256 nodes will be installed at a later date.
The cluster environment will provide a much-needed technology
upgrade to the NCCS high-performance computing environment, and
provide