Supercomputers around the world are running on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell. According to TOP500, a project that tracks and detects trends in high-performance computing, SUSE Linux Enterprise is the Linux of choice on the world's largest HPC supercomputers today. Leveraging the economics of open source software and low cost hardware, Novell, together with its partners, is bringing the same high performance computing capabilities utilized in supercomputers to enterprises and mid-market customers in a range of industries, including manufacturing, research and academic organizations.

    Of the top 50 supercomputers worldwide, 40 percent are running on SUSE Linux Enterprise, including the top three - IBM eServer Blue Gene at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, IBM eServer BlueGene/P (JUGENE) at the Juelich Research Center and SGI Altix 8200 at the New Mexico Computing Applications Center.

    High Performance Computing (HPC) is used to solve the most demanding computational and data-intensive problems. Due to the evolution of both lower cost hardware and enterprise class Linux distributions, the HPC market is rapidly changing, away from RISC/UNIX symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) servers and proprietary cluster platforms toward Linux industry standard servers and clusters. Linux has become the cluster operating system of choice, thanks to its scalability and performance capabilities, its similarity to UNIX, and the wide variety of open-source software and development tools available.

    Customers such as Audi, MTU Aero Engines, NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division, Porsche Informatik, Seoul National University, Swinburne University of Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology and Wehmeyer are running supercomputers and computer clusters on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to handle mission-critical workloads with minimal downtime. Three supercomputers at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division currently operate on SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell.

     These computers are used to evaluate next-generation technology to meet NASA's engineering and science requirements, control system operation and launch programs, and support NASA's aeronautics, science and space operations initiatives. NASA's next supercomputer, scheduled for completion this summer, will also run on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and when deployed will be one of the largest SGI Altix ICE systems, on par with the current third-ranked most powerful supercomputer.

    Companies like Appro International, Atipa Technologies, Cluster Resources, HP, Penguin Computing, SGI and Teradata are incorporating SUSE Linux Enterprise Server into the high-performance computing solutions they are providing to their own customers. SUSE Linux Enterprise has been a leader in the high performance computing market for more than a decade, based on the strong engineering heritage of the distribution.