New World Record Increases Bandwidth More Than 330 Percent Over Last Year
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sun Microsystems,
Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced a team led by the Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center (SLAC), CalTech and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratories
(FNAL) set a new world record aggregate bandwidth peak of 101.13Gbps at
Supercomputing 2004, far surpassing last year's record of 23.21Gbps and
beating the nearest contender by more than 300 percent. The SCInet Bandwidth
Challenge encourages participants to push the envelope in terms of network
throughput in high performance computing (for more information visit
http://www.sc-conference.org/sc2004/bandwidth.html.)
Using Sun Fire(TM) V20z servers based on the AMD Opteron(TM) processor
running the Solaris(TM) 10 Operating System and Linux, SLAC was able to
demonstrate completely filling a 10Gbps transcontinental network path for a
sustained time with standard 1500Byte packets, and the team achieved over
15Gbps (9.43Gbps in one direction and 5.65Gbps in the reverse direction
simultaneously) on a single 10Gbps wavelength path. In addition, the team
successfully showed smooth communications at multi-Gbps rates between multiple
operating systems and different vendor Network Interface Cards. The Bandwidth
Challenge results prove the efficiency and robustness that an operating system
can deliver, as well as the power and flexibility of two and four-way servers
from Sun built with the AMD Opteron processor and 10 gig Ethernet cards from
S2IO and Chelsio.
"Challenges like this demonstrate the emerging maturity and robustness of
the 10Gbps market and opens up the possibility for new ways to increase the
amount of research we can conduct in our computing centers while reducing our
total cost of ownership," said Dr. Les Cottrell, assistant director for SLAC
Computing Services.
The High Energy Physics (HEP) community is in the midst of running a new
round of experiments to probe the fundamental nature of matter and space-time,
to help us understand the origins of the universe. These experiments require
working with volumes of complex data that need collaboration among scientists
around the world. The performance achievements in the Bandwidth Challenge show
not only an increase in overall throughput, but one Sun Fire V40z server
achieved I/O Ethernet performance of nearly 12Gbps when configured with
Solaris 10 OS and two S2IO network cards. These accomplishments help make it
faster and easier for SLAC to transfer large amounts of data for research and
collaboration.
"Blistering TCP/IP network performance with Solaris 10 allowed this
collaborative effort between S210, Chelsio and SLAC to blow away previous
records," said Glenn Weinberg, VP Operating Platform Group, Sun Microsystems.
"Our investment in Solaris 10, the most advanced UNIX operating system ever,
is paying off for customers worldwide."
Sun unveiled Solaris 10 at its recent Network Computing '04 event.
Representing 3,000 engineering years and a $500 million-plus R&D investment,
Solaris 10 is the fastest operating system ever released by Sun --
applications can run up to 30 times faster and web server performance is more
than 40 percent faster than Solaris 9 in web server performance on both
SPARC(R) and x86 systems. Sun plans to make Solaris 10 available as a free
download by January 31, 2005.
SLAC recently announced the purchase of 360 Sun Fire(TM) V20z servers
based on the AMD Opteron processor for use in advanced research projects
funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The center also uses more than
1000 SPARC architecture-based systems and 400TB of disk from Sun which are
dedicated to SLAC physics and computer science research. The center plans to
use a portion of the AMD Opteron processor-based systems to validate the use
of a Large Memory System to resolve disk latency and bottlenecks, ultimately
delivering a revolutionary increase in scientific productivity.
"Research conducted by these highly regarded education facilities pushes
the envelope in technology advancements and provides the alignment necessary
to create the next generation network systems to power the Internet," said
Kim Jones, vice president of global education and research. "Seeing these
records set using Solaris 10 and the AMD Opteron processor-based systems from
Sun confirms our leadership in high performance computing."
About the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is one of the world's
leading fundamental science research laboratories. SLAC designs, constructs
and operates state-of-the-art particle accelerators and related experimental
facilities used by high-energy physics studies probing the fundamental forces
and structure of matter. The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL),
a premier national user facility at SLAC, enables research requiring ultra
high-intensity x-ray beams for molecular and atomic scale studies in physics,
biology, chemistry, medicine, and environmental science. The Kavli Institute
for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at SLAC is one of the most important
centers for the study of the exciting new science of Particle Astrophysics.
The BABAR collaboration investigating matter/anti-matter asymmetry is a
current focus of high-energy physics, as is a vigorous R&D program focused on
development of the International Linear Collider. SLAC, operated by Stanford
University for the Department of Energy, Office of Science, is 40 miles south
of San Francisco, California.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The
Computer(TM)" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a
leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that
make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the
World Wide Web at http://sun.com .
NOTE: Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Sun Fire, Solaris, and The
Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun
Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC
trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks
of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Kathy Tom Engle
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
+1-415-294-4368
kathy.engle@sun.com
Jennifer Doettling
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
+1-408-276-5721
jennifer.doettling@sun.com
http://www.sun.com/news
allpress@sun.com
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