LoBoS 2

After the success of the initial LoBoS implementation, the Computational Biophysics Section decided to create a second cluster using more modern (at the time) hardware. Eric Billings once again took the lead of designing and implementing the cluster. Of particular note is the abandonment of the relatively inefficient ring topology for a standard fast ethernet bus topology. A gigabit uplink provided high speed networking outside the cluster's immediate environment. LoBoS 2 was built in July and August of 1998, and was used from October 1998 to January, 2001. It was completely converted to desktop use by June, 2001.

Equipment	Notes
100 compute nodes	Full node specifications: Supermicro P6DBE motherboard Dual 450 MHz Pentium II processors with 512 KB L2 cache 256 MB SDRAM + 512 MB of swap space Packet Engine gigabit ethernet GNIC-II Linux Operating System
4 Master Nodes	American Megatrends MerlinDP Motherboard Dual 200 MHz Pentium Pro with 256 KB L2 cache 1.2 GB EIDE hard drives Note: These master nodes were upgraded for use with LoBoS 4.

LoBoS 2 nodes installed. Note the fiber-optic gigabit ethernet connections.

  Department of Health and Human Services     National Institutes of Health     National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute