LinuxCon Europe + CloudOpen Europe

D. E. Shaw Research has designed and built Anton, a specialized supercomputer that executes molecular dynamics simulations orders of magnitude faster than was previously possible. Although Anton’s specialized chips do not themselves run an operating system, attached PowerPC processors and an external x86 server run Linux, enabling functions such as data transfer, job management, compilation, and scheduling. This talk will describe some of the challenges faced when constructing systems software for a specialized supercomputer. It will include a discussion of how to write Linux drivers that access custom hardware, how to run and manage hundreds of Linux nodes as one logical entity, and how to maximize data throughput for such a system. The talk will also cover the development of tools for custom hardware bring-up and some of the lessons learned in the bring-up process.