A natural progression
Doghouse – Real Beowulf

The prohibitive expense of early proprietary supercomputers is just part of why Linux has taken (and kept) the lead in this area.
There's been a lot of discussion recently in social media about high-performance computing (HPC) and the viability of Linux (instead of other operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows and FreeBSD) for HPC. I thought I would use this month's column to explain why all 500 of the fastest computers in the world run GNU/Linux.
Around 1995, the supercomputer market was having some issues. Specially designed supercomputers were very expensive, mostly because companies (e.g., Cray, HP Enterprise El Capitan, CDC 6600) would each spend millions of dollars on specialized hardware design, their own proprietary OS, and perhaps their own compilers (etc., etc.) to make their own supercomputers – and then sell a relatively small number of them. These companies were going out of business.
Then two people at NASA, Dr. Thomas Sterling and Donald Becker took the concept of decomposing large problems into many smaller ones and using commodity hardware (desktop PCs and Ethernet networking) to make something they called Beowulf systems.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
VirtualBox 7.2 Has Arrived
With early support for Linux kernel 6.17 and other new additions, VirtualBox 7.2 is a must-update for users.
-
Linux Mint 22.2 Beta Available for Testing
Some interesting new additions and improvements are coming to Linux Mint. Check out the Linux Mint 22.2 Beta to give it a test run.
-
Debian 13.0 Officially Released
After two years of development, the latest iteration of Debian is now available with plenty of under-the-hood improvements.
-
Upcoming Changes for MXLinux
MXLinux 25 has plenty in store to please all types of users.
-
A New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle, a Linux AI assistant, works with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.