Linux NetworX builds a better cluster.

• Author: Beers, Heather
• Position: Tech Talk - Brief Article - Company Profile

Picture a cluster of grapes. Tethered by an umbilical vine, the orbs grow to collective fruition on an adaptive lifeline.

Borrowing from nature's efficient models, high-powered computing solutions are changing the way complex problems are solved, and Utah's Linux NetworX is at the forefront of that revolution.

As pioneers in cluster technology, Sandy-based Linux NetworX delivered the world's first commercial Linux cluster system in 1997, to Brookhaven National Labs, in Upton, NY. Linux NetworX's system is an adaptable, efficient successor to the "supercomputer," the Goliath wall-to-wall processors used post-World War II by government laboratories, oil and gas companies and other groups with intensive computing needs.

"Clustering is a means of allowing multiple processors to work together, connected by a high-speed network," explains Stephen Hill, Linux NetworX CEO.

As an example, Hill described the system of approximately 500 PCs, programmed to compute in collective effort, that Linux NetworX recently designed for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in Livermore, CA. Linux NetworX has designed similar systems for dozens of other high-profile clients, including the Boeing Company, Tularik and Shell Oil.

Organizations in oil and gas exploration, aeronautical and chemical modeling, biotechnology research, graphics rendering and visual effects, Web serving, and other research fields are turning to cluster technology for its significant advantages over traditional solutions. Since clustering hardware is based on the same components used in home computers, the equipment is affordable. Cluster...