Update: Linux supercomputers used for DOD

AUGUST 30, 2004 (LINUXWORLD) - More details have been released regarding the U.S. Department of Defense’s choice of Linux-based supercomputers to power complicated battle scenarios.

The Pentagon is using two 256-processor Linux Networx Inc. Evolocity cluster supercomputers to conduct disaster simulations. One computer has been installed at a DOD High Performance Computing Center in Dayton, Ohio, the other in Hawaii at the U.S. Air Force’s Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC). The purchase is part of a technology initiative known as the Technology Insertion 2004 program, which is designed to provide the DOD with the most current technology to conduct various simulations. The new Linux machines replaced 3-year-old, 512-processor clusters that weren’t powerful enough to conduct the simulations now being done by the military.

The clusters can simulate moving 3,000 U.S. troops among 1 million civilian vehicles. David Morton, technical director at the MHPCC, said the computers will one day be used for more immediate purposes. “This is still bleeding-edge, but it will eventually be used for training,” Morton said. “It’s still in the lab, but these same capabilities will move out to support actual war [battles].”