Chapter 1. Cluster Architecture

Computing speed isn't just a convenience. Faster computers allow us to solve larger problems, and to find solutions more quickly, with greater accuracy, and at a lower cost. All this adds up to a competitive advantage. In the sciences, this may mean the difference between being the first to publish and not publishing. In industry, it may determine who's first to the patent office.

Traditional high-performance clusters have proved their worth in a variety of uses-from predicting the weather to industrial design, from molecular dynamics to astronomical modeling. High-performance computing (HPC) has created a new approach to science-modeling is now a viable and respected alternative to the more traditional experiential and theoretical approaches.

Clusters are also playing a greater role in business. High performance is a key issue in data mining or in image rendering. Advances in clustering technology have led to high-availability and load-balancing clusters. Clustering is now used for mission-critical applications such as web and FTP servers. For example, Google uses an ever-growing cluster composed of tens of thousands of computers.