ClusterVision, specialist in Linux supercomputer clusters, today announced a very successful year 2003. ClusterVision has established itself as a leading supplier of clusters to the UK and Benelux research communities. In 2003, it has won more European Tenders for clusters in the UK and Benelux than any other company, both in terms of number and monetary value of tenders.

ClusterVision has also proven to be at the forefront of clustering technology, having been the first in the Benelux and one of the first in Europe to supply a cluster based on the InfiniBand network technology. ClusterVision was also the first in the UK to supply a cluster based on the AMD Opteron processor.

ClusterVision became an official Worldwide Oracle Partner in 2003 following its successful bid to build Oracle 9i RAC database clusters for Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Manchester University.

Furthermore, ClusterVision won the Vosko price for "technological break through" and was voted one of the 15 most innovative companies in the Netherlands by the Intermediair magazine.

University of Amsterdam Collaboration

ClusterVision started a long-term and close collaboration with the University of Amsterdam technology transfer company, PCC UvA, on Grid Computing in general and their Virtual Laboratory application in particular. ClusterVision will contribute to the development of the Virtual Laboratory with the aim to market and sell the Grid based tool to the commercial market. ClusterVision and the University of Amsterdam jointly exhibited and demonstrated the Virtual Laboratory at the Supercomputing 2003 conference in Phoenix, USA.

NEC High Performance Computing Europe Collaboration

ClusterVision also started a very successful collaboration with NEC High Performance Computing Europe (NEC HPCE). ClusterVision became NEC HPCE's cluster solution provider for Northern Europe and reseller of NEC's TX7 shared memory supercomputer based on the Itanium2 processor. Several of the large clustering projects mentioned below were won by ClusterVision in consortium with NEC HPCE.

Clusters in the UK

In the UK, ClusterVision installed several large clusters. The biggest clustering project included four clusters which were installed simultaneously at four different sites, including CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the Universities of Oxford, Manchester and Leeds. These clusters have a total of 348 Xeon 3.06GHz/1MB Xeon CPUs, 750GB DDR memory, 40TB Fibre Channel SAN storage, and 170 Myrinet network ports. They will be connected together using Grid technology and will be used at the heart of the UK Grid.

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory also ordered a 160 Xeon processor compute cluster and a 53TB RAID storage cluster. Other clusters in the UK include the earlier mentioned 48 AMD Opteron processor cluster at Manchester University which is used for chemistry research. A 80 Xeon processor cluster with Myrinet sold to the Bradford Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation will be used for drug discovery research. This cluster will soon be complemented by a 3D visualisation facility to be supplied by ClusterVision.

ClusterVision sold a 140 Xeon and 8 Itanium2 processor compute cluster with the Myrinet to the University of Sheffield Teaching Hospital. This cluster was implemented by NEC HPCE and will be used for medical research involving real time MRI scan analysis and mechanical analysis of human bones and skeletons. Another cluster installed at the Natural History Museum in London is used for DNA analysis of different species. Further clusters were installed at, amongst others, Imperial College and Queen Mary College London.

Clusters in the Benelux

In the Benelux, ClusterVision installed several large clusters. One large cluster was ordered by Cenaero, a Belgium aerospace research company. This cluster comprises 176 Xeon 3.06GHz/1MB processors, 88 Myrinet ports and 4 TB of RAID storage.

Other clusters include the earlier mentioned 66 Xeon processor cluster with the InfiniBand network interconnect for the University of Utrecht. This cluster is used for Climate, Oceanography and Astrophysics research.

Another cluster, installed at the Academic Hospital of Utrecht, is used for MRI scan analysis. Other clusters were installed at, amongst others, the Universities of Eindhoven, Leiden, Amsterdam, and the research institutes NIKHEF and Delft Hydraulics.

About Linux Supercomputer Clusters

ClusterVision's clustering technology provides an alternative to traditional supercomputing by connecting multiple computers to form a unified and powerful computing system. These so-called "Beowulf Clusters" are built from high-quality commodity computer components in combination with the Linux-based ClusterVisionOS cluster operating system and software environment. The ClusterVisionOS was developed by ClusterVision to ease the use and management of clusters. Clusters can match the performance and stability of traditional supercomputers for a fraction of the cost.

About ClusterVision

ClusterVision are specialists in the design, implementation and support of large-scale compute, storage and database clusters. The technical team at ClusterVision have designed, implemented and supported some of the largest and most complex compute and storage clusters in the UK and the Netherlands. ClusterVision is official Worldwide Oracle Partner and cluster solution provider for NEC High Performance Computing in Northern Europe. ClusterVision has offices in Amsterdam and London.

For more information http://www.clustervision.com

Dr ir Matthijs van Leeuwen
ClusterVision BV
J.C. Beetslaan 155
2131 AL Hoofddorp
Netherlands
Tel NL: +31 23 567 7510
Tel UK: +44 870 080 1980
Fax: +31 23 567 7519