A press release from Mandrakesoft:

Mandrakesoft introduces new Mandrakelinux Clustering HPC Linux solution

Moreno Valley, Ca; Paris, France; March, 30th 2005 -- Following recent major successful deployments of Mandrakelinux Clustering, Mandrakesoft today announces a new version of its intensive calculation solution. Dedicated to research laboratories and other computing-intensive industries, the new Mandrakelinux Clustering provides major updates such as Infiniband support and version 2.6 of the Linux kernel by default. Apart from its performance and affordable cost, Mandrakelinux Clustering provides unrivaled methods and tools for easy installation and administration of the system.

Far more than just a product, Mandrakelinux Clustering is a complete solution for deploying powerful calculation systems with a wide range of uses, including crash simulation, acoustics, seismic modeling and risk analysis.

Clustering solutions need power: both 64-bit AMD Opteron and Intel EM-64T versions are available. Low latency and high bandwidth are made possible by the use of high performance connections between nodes. In addition to SCI connections, Mandrakelinux Clustering now supports Voltaire Infiniband.

HP recently deployed its "HPC1" 240 CPU cluster in Europe, using Mandrakelinux Clustering and Infiniband. The HPC1 will provide CPU cycles to the oil, gas, manufacturing, bioinformatics industries, and others.

"Nearly three years after the first release of Mandrakelinux
Clustering, it has matured to a point where we are starting to see significant deployments of the product," said François Bancilhon, CEO of Mandrakesoft. He added: "We believe that powerful and affordable clustering solutions can be made possible through our own innovation and the use of open source components in the product, while we provide a comprehensive base around the product, including top quality support and assistance."

Mandrakelinux Clustering can be quickly installed, using the PXE network initialization technology. A full deployment is possible in only a few minutes with the help of Clusterscripts and Ka-deploy utilities. URPMI - the Mandrakelinux package management system and dependency resolver - is parallelized to allow automated software updating of all nodes simultaneously.

To guarantee an optimal user experience, Mandrakelinux Clustering provides a graphical environment along with numerous administration tools which allow the Cluster administrator to add and remove nodes with a single click, create virtual partitions, assign users to partitions, and graphically configure the entire system. Graphical monitoring of the system is performed via a dedicated tool named "Ganglia".

In addition, Mandrakelinux Clustering offers the ability to use two separate network interfaces, thereby allowing the ability to separate the administration network from the computing network.

The price of Mandrakelinux Clustering solutions - including product and support - is dependent on the number of deployed nodes and selected support options. Base price is $2,200 USD / 2,392 euro. For support and prices, please consult:
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/clustering

Core versions of the Mandrakelinux Clustering solutions are also available at: http://store.mandrakesoft.com/index.php?cPath=48_68

You may request sales assistance by contacting:
clustersales at mandrakesoft dot com

Mandrakelinux Clustering grew out of a government-funded research project called CLIC (http://clic.mandrakesoft.com)

About Mandrakesoft

Mandrakesoft is the publisher of the popular Mandrakelinux operating system, one of the most full-featured and easy to use Linux systems available. The company offers its enterprise, government and educational customers a complete range of GNU/Linux and Open Source software and related services. Mandrakesoft products are available in more than 120 countries through dedicated channels and also from Mandrakestore.com, the company's online store. Number 1 in several countries, Mandrakesoft has won many awards for quality and technical innovation. "Born on the Internet" in late 1998, Mandrakesoft has offices in the United States and France. Mandrakesoft is traded on Paris Euronext Marché Libre (ISIN Code: FR0004159382/MLMAN; Reuters code: MAKE.PA) and the US OTC market (stock symbol MDKFF).

http://www.mandrakesoft.com