RCF CLUSTER

GENERAL INFORMATION

The RCF's Beowulf-style Linux cluster is designed specifically for distributed computing. This set of Linux-based systems can work together to complete complex, processor-intensive tasks.

• The master node monitors and distributes work among the "worker bee" compute nodes.
• The NFS server and disk arrays contain users' home directories and temporary workspaces for data.
• The compute nodes carry out the tasks assigned them by the master node.

PROJECT HISTORY

In early 2001 the RCF began compiling a set of tools to assist Mayo investigators in performing genomics research. As a growing number of genomics/proteomics/bioinformatics tools were developed for Linux/Intel systems in the Open Software environment, that's where the RCF's efforts were focused.

The result, rcfcluster1, makes it possible for Mayo investigators to run cluster-aware codes and applications (for example, BLAST).

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS