Linux
London stock exchange switches to linux
The Inquirer / Ed Berridge
The software was gained by acquiring the Sri Lankan company that developed it for £18 million in September. When it is switched on it will replace the outgoing TradElect platform, which is based on Microsoft’s .Net framework and was upgraded by Accenture only two years ago at a cost of £40 million.
35,000-Core Ubuntu Farm Renders Avatar
From the Canyon Edge / Dustin Kirkland
It was a great talk, about the type of data center needed to render special effects in today’s blockbuster movies. They have a 2 Petabyte disk array, 10gbps networking, and 35,000 cores
‘Farms’ of this scale and larger are starting to become available in the ordinary course of business (and academia) if you know where to look.
http://www.kaust.edu.sa/research/labs/supercomputing.html at a university in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.alcf.anl.gov/ in deepest Illinois.
http://www.fz-juelich.de/jsc/jugene in Germany.
It’s fascinating to see the uses they are being put to. Special effects for commercial cinema isn’t something I’ve done myself, but I wish the studio every success in their venture because that is what will bring further investment into the business that does pay my salary.
And, of course, the IBM salesman is selling. Just ask.