PC Cluster Machine Equipped with Low-Latency Communication Software

A high performance Beowulf (PC cluster) machine installed with Linux operating system and MPI (Message Passing Interface) for interprocessor communications has been constructed using Gigabit Ethernet and the communication software GAMMA (Genoa Active Message Machine), instead of the standard TCP/IP protocol. Fast C/Fortran compilers have been exploited with the GAMMA communication libraries. This method has eliminated large communication overhead of TCP/IP and resulted in significant increase in the computational performance of real application programs including the first-principle molecular dynamics simulation code. Scalability on the number of processors and reliability over a long period of time (days) have also been confirmed for the GAMMA communications. Keywords: non TCP/IP, active messages, small latency, fast C/Fortran compilers, first-principle (quantum mechanical) molecular dynamics, advanced materials