Cray's CX1 is a powerful, advanced piece of technology. And though it is a supercomputer, it has a form factor small enough to sit by your desk side. No wonder it is being touted as the innovation that may make highhttp://magazine.itmagz.com/administrator/index.php?option=com_content&sectionid=-1&task=edit&cid[]=392 power computing commonplace!

Cray's recently launched CX1 supercomputer may prove to be a path-breaking product in more than one way. The high power computing (HPC) powerhouse has been designed so that users of desktop computers who want to move to high HPC, find it easy to work on. Cray has designed CX1 to enable smaller companies and business units to enjoy the same advantages that large companies have enjoyed from supercomputers, for decades: higher productivity and innovation, superior products and solutions, faster time to market, and sustainable competitive advantage. With the Cray CX1 system, those who use Windows on the desktop will be able to unify their Windows desktop and server workflows. An added advantage is that Windows and Linux can interoperate on the Cray CX1 system.

Enumerating the key benefits that the CX1 offers, Venkat R, vice president, Hinditron-Cray, says, "One big advantage is that you don't need all that data centre expertise because the Cray CX1 product is designed for 'ease of everything' and includes on-site support as a standard benefit.

"Another significant advantage, of course, is that with this system, your job doesn't have to wait hours or days in a data centre priority queue. With a Cray CX1 multi-user system at your desk side or in your office environment, your job always has high priority.

"Even if you have access to a larger HPC system in your data centre, when the wait time is counted in, you may still get results sooner with a local Cray CX1 system."

As per company claims, the Cray CX1 supercomputer is as powerful as some of the world's fastest supercomputers were only a few years ago and can bring much of the power of the data centre into a user's work environment.

An HPC system with a difference!

So far, HPC systems have been expensive and complex to use. As Venkat explains: "HPC systems located in the data centres of government, university and industry organisations often cost millions of dollars because they are large, sometimes comprising hundreds of cabinets, and they may augment standard technologies with pricier custom technologies to provide extra speed."

But CX1 is different. Unlike previous HPC systems, it is designed to be easy to purchase, deploy, operate and upgrade. It comes at a price range that begins at $25,000 and peaks at about $80,000 for a maximally equipped version. This makes it the most affordable supercomputer ever offered by Cray.

Big government sites with dozens or hundreds of HPC experts on their staff can manage traditional high-end supercomputers. Most small and mid-size companies, as well as departments and workgroups in large firms, do not have in-house HPC experts and do not plan to hire any. But CX1 system’s ease of use makes HPC-based modelling and simulation feasible for even small workgroups and departments in enterprise markets.

Taming costs

Till a decade ago, not enough high-volume, cost-effective standard technologies existed for HPC systems. As a result, supercomputers were forced to rely heavily on expensive custom technologies. So how has Cray managed to reduce the price to sub-$100,000 for CX1? Venkat reveals, "......by using Cray's 35 years of HPC design experience to exploit affordable standard technologies such as the Windows HPC Server 2008, Linux operating systems, Intel Xeon processors, Ethernet and InfiniBand standard interconnects.

"Cray also keeps a lid on costs by working through trusted value-added resellers such as our firm, Hinditron, instead of trying to extend the company's direct sales force all around the world."

The market for HPC

High power computing was a much smaller market a decade ago. Its use was effectively limited to large government organisations, leading universities, and tier-I industrial firms. However, in a recent study conducted by global market analysts IDC, 97 per cent of the surveyed large businesses that had adopted HPC said they could no longer compete or survive without it.

Now that the benefits of HPC have been proven in these large organisations and standard technologies have made HPC more affordable, the time is ripe for smaller organisations to jump into the game and reap the same benefits, feels Venkat.

The Cray CX1 product has been designed for what IDC calls the 'workgroup' market segment for HPC systems priced below $100,000. This category is both a 'bottom-up' market for users in small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) that are migrating from sole reliance on desktop computers, and a 'top-down' market for large companies attempting to drive the benefits of HPC deeper into their extended organisations, down to the level of departments, workgroups, and key individual scientists and engineers, as well as suppliers.

Targeted verticals include financial services, aerospace, automotive, petroleum, life sciences, government, academia and digital media.

Cray's CX1 is powerful, sleek and does not cost the earth. It might just change the way the world views HPC, making supercomputers so much more accessible.