rchatterjee writes "Cray, the only mainstream recognizeable name in supercomputing, has been busy lately. Their totally new MTA-2 supercomputer design will use a UltraSPARC-III powered Sun Fire 6800 server to just feed the data to the MTA-2's processor. They're also refocussing on Vector Supercomputers and are going to release their first new vector supercomputer since Tera Computing bought them, the SV-2 in 2002. And if that wasn't enough they have a deal with API networks to develop Alpha processor based Beowulf clusters of Linux machines that as a cluster will run the same operating system as Cray's T3E supercomputers. Seymour Cray would be proud. You can get a quick overview of all the latest Cray developments from this article on Cnet."

Rick the Red asks: "I'd like to build a mini-supercomputer for our High School (and perhaps another for the Junior High). Given that cost is an issue, but given that effective, hands-on demonstration of the principles of parallel processing and clustered computing is the primary goal, how many nodes would it take to make a reasonable demonstration Beowulf cluster? Two? Eight? Sixteen? Has anyone else here done this, and if so are there resources (lesson plans would be nice) on the net for teachers? Also, has anyone networked a room full of computers such that one minute they're individual PCs available for the usual classroom stuff and the next minute they're a Beowulf cluster? If so, how did you do it? And for the final, far out question: Has anyone ever used VMware to create a Beowulf simulator, clustering virtual PCs running on one physical box?"

Winged Cat writes: "BusinessWeek has a story on plants that can transmit and react to radio signals, to act as remote sensors and actuators (say, to report degraded soil conditions and/or prepare for a cold snap). ObComments: if they could also do some computation, you could grow your own Beowulf cluster; and I wonder if you could enter this into Robot Wars?"

An anonymous reader wrote in to say that Cray has announced that they will be selling their own Linux Beowulf clusters. They're apparently gonna be working with Scyld on the software, and they of course have some crazy hardware (of course the name is SuperCluster, but I guess stupid names are nothing new ;)

Pheno writes: "This looks like a fun LUG project. A simple setup for a Linux cluster called OSCAR from the Open Cluster Group. The people behind it are Oak Ridge National Labs and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and some private companies. According to this Newsforge (part of the Keiretsu) story their 'Supercomputer on a CD' software is supposed to make it so easy to put a Beowulf cluster together a high school student or MCSE can do it in a few hours."

Veidit writes: "The Compaq Cambridge Research Laboratory seems to have a cool project named "Mercury". They are integrating an IPAQ running Linux with many diffrent types of wireless alternatives like 802.11b, Bluetooth, GSM, CDMA via PCMCIA. The linux version seems to be the one that Handhelds.org has. " We also had an e-mail from Dan Sparks who writes: " The free Compaq TestDrive Program has added two new features allowing iPAQ handheld development online. In the Test Drive Program, we have four DEC Sharks (DNARD) SA-110 based network computers running Linux allowing development on Linux based StrongArm systems. In addition, Alpha2Arm cross-compiler tool chain has been added to every single one of our Alpha Linux machines, including our Brickwall Beowulf cluster. This means that you can compile programs for your iPAQ handheld on our blazingly fast Alpha computers. The Toolchain includes support for C and C++, and is available on all the Alpha-based Linux distributions we have, including RedHat Linux, SuSE Linux, TurboLinux, Kondara Linux, and Debian GNU/Linux."

Aciel asks: "Does anyone know what happened to Freeboxen? For those who don't remember, Freeboxen was a free site where one could post old hardware and have it taken off your hands. Very cool, especially for building Beowulf clusters. Anyway, I found this Slashdot posting about it, from when it was originally announced, but going to the site turns up a 'Cannot find server.' A Google search for it reveals several cached pages, including one which provides the e-mail addresses of Freeboxen's owner, James Lincoln. But both e-mail addresses -and- a subsequent attempt replacing mindspring.com with earthlink.net returns messages from angry mailer-daemons. I did a 'whois freeboxen.com', and it turned up a phone number and address, but I'm not inclined to harass people in their homes and offices. Anyone know what happened to Freeboxen, then? If not, are there any other good old hardware swap sites out there?"

Spackler asks: "Recently, I completed a consulting gig that I needed to pick up 5 fast machines for a data conversion. Now that the conversion is complete, I have all this hardware, and nothing to compute. I know I could toss them together as a Beowulf cluster, but the big question is, what types of things do I compute on them? I know distributed.net, or Seti@home, or GIMPS would like them just added in, but are there any cool off the shelf things that need a ton of power, and take a long time to process, that can be done on a normal cluster? Some odd (but easy to understand) math question? Something cooler than brute force encryption breaking?" We've already had a discussion on some of the more well known distributed projects already, what are more home grown projects that one can use a cluster for?

Way back in October we solicited ideas for Christmas presents for geeks. This was done with Wired, and the results appear in the current issue (the lime-green colored one: unless you're blind, you can't miss it. You'll only be able to find the first copy, tho). The authors' money will be a nice Christmas present to the EFF. Thanks go to Paul, who did all the really hard work compiling the final list from all your ideas. Now read on to see the list.

Ben Mesander writes: "Check out the cool looking iDitarod' parallel PPC Linux machine the folks at Terra Soft Solutions just shipped." This yellow rack actually packs a lot of power into a relatively small, mobile enclosure You don't even have to build a beowulf cluster out of this, but it's for deeper pockets than I've got -- as they suggest, though, it sounds like an easy way for a company or school to get a sweet little turnkey PPC cluster.

syn1 asks: "There has been a proliferation of Linux distros over the last couple years. Many are specialized for specific tasks or needs. In terms of Beowulf Clusters, there are a growing number of distros specialized for these clusters. Although the old favorite among specialized Beowulf distros is Extreme Linux, other distros such as Syclid Linux and Scali Linux are catching up in terms of user share. Additionally, more people are using conventional distros (Red Hat, Debian, Mandrake, SuSE, etc..) and adding Beowulf support. I am just wondering what fellow Slashdotters think about these various distros when it comes to Beowulf Clusters and which ones they think are best."

mulcher asks: "In a beowulf cluster I want to store (logically) one giant data structure across many nodes and have individual nodes compute in parallel. Each node has SMP so I want to exploit that as well. I have seen C/C++ and Message Passing Interface MPI, however I am also looking for Java and Haskell interfaces, or special parallel languages interfaces. Any suggestions? Also is there anyone out there who has attempted this and can recommend some URLs?"

grantedparole noted that Scyld has announced that they'll be releasing Beowulf 2 on tuesday. Scyld's CTO is none other then Don Becker. Presumably they'll be showing this off at ALS this week (ALS is the Atlanta Linux Showcase, and is probably the best of all the Linux shows. Since its in Atlanta, its also the only tradeshow that doesn't require me to take a connecting flight!).

Dreddlox writes "I'm looking at a company producing cluster management software for Linux-based clusters such as Beowulf and would like to get a feel for waht's out there right now. I know Turbolinux for example has a product, enFuzion as do a few others. I'm trying to get a complete list of the players in this market as well as on any open source software and distributions of it if any exist. Also if anybody has any pointers or information on the use of Linux clusters in non-military and non-academic applications (such as auto manufacture and finance) especially outisde the US. I'm curious as to potential for such software in Europe and Asia (with all the talk of China being a ripe market for Linux due to the open source angle)."

Tower writes: "Compaq Computer (Digital) and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center have won a $36 million contract to build a 2,728-processor supercomputer using 1.1 GHz EV68 processors in a 682 node Beowulf setup. Check it out here." This is a different machine than this one: That one was supposed to be used to calculate nuclear explosions, this one will be used by the National Science Foundation to work on biophysics, global climate change, astrophysics and materials science, according to the article.

Martin Ling writes: "The Linuxbierwanderung 2000 , at Coniston in the UK's Lake District, is currently in full swing. There is an ongoing live site with pictures and a diary, including details of our Beowulf projects. And of course, there's a webcam. Events have included talks on SETI & radio astronomy, wearable computing, and a trip to the Sellafield nuclear plant. Oh, and that whole lot in the village hall is running through one 33.6kbps modem .... Emails to this address should get through, and I will print them on the notice board."

Here are the answers to the questions we asked Ian Murdock, original Debian instigator and current President/CEO of Progeny Linx Systems.

Jacob Javits Convention Center, New York - Despite the overwhelming Windows orientation of PC Expo (Apple didn't show up at all), there have been a few signs of Linux life. Today's 11:30 a.m. keynote speech was given jointly by Mark Bolzern of LinuxMall.com and John "Maddog" Hall of Linux International.

Frequent book reviewer and genuine Englishman Duncan Lawie sent us this first-person account of UK Linux Expo 2000. Proof (not that it was needed) that not only is Linux continuing to grow in the UK as elsewhere, but that the disconnect between suits and geeks remains as evident as ever. Read below for good news and medium news -- thankfully, that seems to be as bad as it gets for this transmission.

On May 23 we requested questions for Greg Lindahl, chief designer of the new NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratories massive Alpha Linux Cluster. Here are his answers. Fascinating stuff for people interested in big-time parallel computing.