Bay Area University to Build World's First FlashMob Supercomputer
FlashMob I Democratizes Supercomputing
SAN FRANCISCO, March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 3, 2004, hundreds of computer
enthusiasts will create FlashMob I, the first FlashMob Supercomputer in the
world, and attempt to break into the Top 500 Fastest Supercomputers on earth.
Sponsored by University of San Francisco, FlashMob I will be created on the
University of San Francisco (USF) campus, using USF student and
faculty-designed open-source software.
A FlashMob Supercomputer is created by connecting a virtually infinite number
of computers via a high-speed LAN, to work together as a single supercomputer.
A FlashMob computer, unlike an ordinary cluster, is temporary and organized ad
hoc for the purpose of working on a single problem. It uses volunteers and
ordinary laptop PC's, and is designed to allow anyone to create a supercomputer
in a matter of hours.
"This is a radical new idea in supercomputing, as well as an important
scientific and social experiment," said John Witchel, graduate student and co-
creator of FlashMob Computing. "The goal of the FlashMob I project is to
demonstrate the viability of widespread supercomputing. We hope to give
ordinary citizens the power to explore and address problems that are most
important to them -- whether it's a high-school science class looking to
participate in study of global warming, or a family impacted by breast cancer,
or even a chess club looking to build an electronic grand-master. In short, we
want to democratize supercomputing."
"FlashMob Computing was effectively invented in the course of a classroom
discussion," said Pat Miller, USF lecturer and computer scientist at the Center
for Applied Scientific Computing at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
"A student posited that could break into the Top 500, by simply inviting people
to come together to create a supercomputer for a few hours."
"Today, supercomputers are reserved for issues the government deems important,
primarily defense research," said Greg Benson, USF Professor. "We envision a
supercomputing landscape where individuals can effectively 'vote with their
laptops' by volunteering to lend their computers to causes that are important
to them -- regardless of governmental interest and support. Because FlashMob
supercomputers are relatively easy to set up and its code is so portable,
scientists can develop can write programs that are 'flashable,' and put out a
request for a FlashMob, breaking science's long-time dependence on traditional
supercomputer centers. Our ability to harness the power and promise of
supercomputing will directly impact our individual and global well- being and
prosperity."
FlashMob I
FlashMob I will occur on April 3, 2004, at the University of San Francisco gym.
Network setup will begin on April 2. Doors open at 8:00 AM, with arrival
times staggered throughout the morning. Participants will be assigned a
specific arrival time when they register. As participants arrive, they will be
given a copy of FlashMob I Software which they will boot from their CD-ROM.
Because the program runs entirely from the CD-ROM, hard drives will never be
touched, safeguarding personal data security. Once the PC is connected to the
network, it will self-configure and begin processing requests from a central
server. With the addition of each volunteer computer, the power of the
supercomputer grows.
At 1:00 PM on April 3, USF students and faculty will run LINPACK, a well- known
benchmarking software package. The last benchmark will be run at 5:00 PM that
same evening. The best benchmark will be submitted for inclusion in the Top
500 Supercomputer list.
Throughout the day, USF will host a series of lectures and round table
discussions, with industry experts from Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, NASA, NERSC
and others, as well as technology exhibitions and an XBox tournament.
FlashMob I is a modified Linux kernel containing original software that allows
individual PC's to join a network and operate as a single supercomputer.
Standard supercomputer libraries such as MPI have been specially tuned for the
unusual nature of a FlashMob and original code has been written to facilitate
bootstrapping PC's, real-time reporting, on the fly network and node
diagnostics, and ad-hoc performance optimization. Both the modified Linux
kernel and the accompanying software are burned onto a bootable CD-ROM and
duplicated in volume.
In the tradition of Open Source computing, raw data from the experiment will be
made publicly available at
www.flashmobcomputing.org, a website where people
can share ideas, tune software, and improve implementation, to encourage
further research in the area of FlashMob Supercomputing, and to provide a
strong baseline of practical experience in preparation for FlashMob II and
FlashMob III. Additionally, the site will start tracking FlashMob computers
with a Top 500 Flashes list -- separate from the top500.org list to encourage
the exploration of this exciting new area.
For more information, or to sign up to participate in this historic event
please visit
http://www.flashmobcomputing.org.
SOURCE University of San Francisco
CO: University of San Francisco
ST: California
SU: MAV
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