Now re-incarnated as a software operation, Thinking Machines Inc last week formally unveiled the software on which it is pinning its hopes for future prosperity, calling it GlobalWorks. GlobalWorks is designed to harness Sun Microsystems Inc UltraSparc workstations running Solaris 2.5 networked with Fiber Channel or Ansynchronous Transfer Mode switches for parallel application processing or for use as individually partitioned throughput nodes (CI No 2,804). The software comes from the Connection Machines parallel processors that Thinking Machines, now in Bedford, Massachusetts, no longer builds. The GlobalWorks 1.0 operating environment provides system-level software for configuring and managing Sun’s 167MHz UltraSparc 1-based Ultra 1 Model 170 ‘pizza boxes’ networked in a Thinking Machines cabinet, managed from a stand-alone Model 170 console as GlobalServer. It includes systems administration and an X Window System-based user interface with user-level commands that work alongside Solaris commands and Suntools.
Interprocessor
A run-time environment includes a single-system image – for networked workstations or symmetric multiprocessing nodes – load-balanced job execution, and interactive and batch access to the server. The company believes the flexibility of its single-image software to delineate multiple throughput and parallel partitions puts it ahead of the competition. It includes other single image techniques such as a universal IP address. TM/MPI is the Thinking Machines implementation – as a C or Fortran library – of the standard Message Passing Interface for writing message-passing programs. A separate library contains a subset of MPI-IO routine which provides input-output for Message Passing Interface processes. The Thinking Machines Transport Layer is described as a network-independent interprocessor messaging library providing an interface between the communications software and Ultra 1-based GlobalWorks Server. Internal networking protocol options supported are Asynchronous Transfer Mode or optimised Fibre Channel. Thinking Machines takes the Ultra 1s OEM from Sun and kits them with either Fore Systems Inc Asynchronous Transfer Mode or Ancor Communications Inc Fibre Channel switches. Ethernet, Fiber Distributed Data Interface and High Performance Parallel Interface connections are supported for external network integration. Currently GlobalWorks supports only Unix database applications running in serial mode. Parallel implementations of Oracle, Sybase, and Informix will be supported in future.
By William Fellows
GlobalWorks 1.0 runs atop Solaris 2.5 and Thinking Machines claims all Solaris 2.5 programs will run without recompilation on its suite. Optional 1.0 features include the company’s existing Motif-based Prism development environment which (for GlobalWorks 1.0) supports C and Fortran 77 serial programs, Parallel Virtual Machine and MPI programs. Sun’s Fortran 77 4.0, C 4.0, C++ 4.1 and Fortran 90 1.1 compilers all work with GlobalWorks 1.0, which runs on the GlobalWorks server Model 100. The company’s currently building a graphical interface that will enable GlobalServer nodes to be automatically partitioned for use as mixed throughput and parallel jobs. It also has a data mining application called Darwin, originally designed for its proprietary Connection Machine parallel processors, which it is conversting for the Ultra 1 as New Darwin, which will be available at the same time as GlobalWorks. It will demonstrate New Darwin, plus GlobalWorks and GlobalServer running on a networked, partitioned system. Ultra 1 Model 170 units will be housed in cabinets that accommodate up to nine nodes as the GlobalServer Model 100. Communication between nodes is over a dedicated high-speed internal network, which is either circuit-switched Fibre Channel or packet-switched Asynchronous Transfer Mode. The maximum configuration possible depends on which network technology is used. A 32-node, four-cabinet system can support both; the seven-cabinet, 64-node configuration supports Fibre Channel only. An Ultra 1 Model 170 workstation serves as system console (system administration system) for the GlobalWorks Server. The console is connected to all GlobalWorks Server nodes via a 100Mbps Ethernet network. If connected to a site-based local network as well, the console functions as a router, enabling access to the server from other systems connected to the local network; $200,000 buys a four-node system with 64Mb RAM and 2Gb disk on each unit, Fibre Channel or Ansynchronous Transfer Mode switches and a similarly-configured console.
Blinking red
The company has retained the blinking red lights that characterised its Connection Machine line and expects first beta deliveries to begin in February with general shipments by the end of the quarter. Thinking Machines claims GlobalWorks is only the first stage of its plan to harness homogeneous, then heterogeneous systems for widespread parallel processing tasks, eyeing the Internet, and especially the idle time of the tens of thousands of Internet servers and internal company networks as its logical objective. It envisages small-system and personal computer implementations of GlobalWorks initially and even conceives of the New Darwin data mining tools being used to interrogate Excel databases running on networks of iAPX-86 or Mac personal computers. Before this there will further releases of GlobalWorks to support Sun’s Ultra 2 systems as the Model 200, followed by other symmetric multiprocessing- and server-enabled releases when Sun delivers the hardware. It is also putting GlobalWorks up on other systems, and it is claiming to have two other vendors in the bag – and one of them is understood to be Silicon Graphics Inc.
