ATLAS is the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences shared High Performance Computing resource. The goal of ATLAS is to provide an HPC resource for the current and future needs of EAS.
Based on commodity components, the ATLAS system will be expandable by addition of nodes, networking, and file storage.
Due to cooling and electrical concerns, it was no longer possible to support many single user machines. This cluster represents a new chapter in EAS computing, one of shared resources and collaboration.
ATLAS was made possible by the EAS faculty pooling resources to purchase a single machine. The process started in Spring '08 with meetings between EAS Faculty, ISG, CoS, and OIT. These meetings gathered requirements and expectations for the system.
In June '08, work with several vendors resulted in an initial configuration that would meet the requirements described by the faculty, as well as offer added capability for testing, debugging, and user expansion. Utilizing state contracts, the hardware order process began in July '08. After some legal wrangling, an acceptable "acceptance document" was agreed upon in August '08.
Parts of the cluster began arriving soon afterwards, with the balance of the hardware due October 30, 2008.
Click here to see the pictographic documentation of the ATLAS building process.
Two ad hoc committees were formed to facilitate administration and governance of the system.
October 31, 2008 - General discussion on the hardware and software. To obtain information and see the powerpoint presentation click here. If you like to see the pdf document click here.
Email list: eas-atlas@lists.gatech.edu (General announcement/discussion list)
Support email address: pace-atlas-support@oit.gatech.edu
Documentation links: Share-IT for PACE program
