HPC MSU

General Computing at the HPC²

HPC² researchers utilize a variety of server systems to fulfill their research requirements. General purpose systems include two Sun X4600 with 16 cores (8 dual core AMD Opteron processors) and 32GB of RAM, 8-processor Sun V880's, several Sun V440's and V240's, and more than a dozen single-, dual-, and quad-processor Sun and IBM servers. Additionally, the HPC² utilizes over 300 PC's running Windows or Linux.

Disk storage is provided via high-performance RAID-enabled disk systems, including a Sun Microsystems-based SAN storage system. A total of nearly 250 Terabytes of disk space is available for HPC² researchers. In addition to the online disk space, a Sun StorageTek SL8500 tape library provides a capability of nearly 2 Petabytes of near-line storage. A Lustre-based high performance parallel filesystem with approximately 3 Terabytes of storage is also available on the core computational systems.

Networking at the HPC²

The HPC²'s high-performance network backbone incorporates a mixture of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10Gb/s) and Gigabit Ethernet (1Gb/s) via an Extreme Networks BlackDiamond 8810 and two Extreme Networks BlackDiamond 6808 switches, an Extreme Networks Summit 7i switch, multiple Extreme Networks Summit x450a, Summit 400, and Summit 48si switches. All primary desktop systems are connected via switched Gigabit Ethernet.

The building infrastructure is connected into the 10 Gigabit/second MSU campus backbone supporting simultaneous data and video connections. Campus connectivity to the Internet at large is via an AT&T 1-Gigabit MetroEthernet connection to the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI) point-of-presense in Jackson, MS. Internet2 and National LambdaRail access is provided via a 10-Gigabit connection to Southern LightRail in Atlanta, GA. Mississippi State University is a charter member of the Internet2 Consortium.