
\section{Resource Allocation}
\def\bfhead#1{\noindent{\bf #1}\\}
\def\bfheadno#1{\noindent{\bf #1}}

\subsection{Current Research Equipment} 
Our current computational resources are distributed between 
the School of Computational Science and Information Technology, 
the acoustics research group in the Department of Mathematics, 
the Department of Industrial Engineering, the National High Energy 
Magnet Laboratory, and the Department of Meteorology. 

\noindent
The equipment breakdown is listed below.\

\bfheadno{School of Computational Science \& Information Technology (CSIT).}
CSIT hosts 
\begin{enumerate}
\item
5 four R10000 processor Origin 200s (180 Mhz), 
each with 1 Gigabyte memory and 27 Gigabytes of disk, 
one single 180 Mhz CPU  Origin 200  (xterminal server) 
one SGI maximum impact with one Gigabyte memory, 
and several SGI O2 workstations each with 1 Gigabyte memory.
\item
A 30 Pentium Pro cluster with dual processors (400 Mhz), 
256 Mbytes memory and 18 Gbytes disk per CPU, and a 100 Mbit/sec ethernet 
network.  The cluster supports the activities in physics in collaboration 
with Jefferson Labs in Newport News, VA.
\item
A 16-processor IBM SP2: 8 wide nodes, each  with 1 gigabyte RAM,
12 gigabyte disk and 1024 Mbytes of memory,  8 thin nodes each
with 256 Mbytes RAM and 12 gigabytes disk.
\item 
A second 30 Pentium Pro cluster with dual processors (450 Mhz), 
256 Mbytes memory and 18 Gbytes disk per CPU is on order for research 
in Physics. 
\item
Two ES40 Compaq machines with 8 Gbytes of physical memory and 
4 CPUs each.
\item
An assortment of older heterogeneous clusters  comprised of 
HPs, IBM RS/6000s, and Alpha Stations.
\end{enumerate}



\bfheadno{Department of Meteorology. }
They possess one
8 node IBM SP2 with 10 Gigabytes memory and 60 Gigabytes disk,
one SGI power Challenge server, one SGI Origin 200 server, 
and 5 SGI workstations.

\bfheadno{Department of Computer Science. }
They possess one
8 node IBM SP2 with 10 Gigabytes memory and 60 Gigabytes disk,
one SGI power Challenge server, one SGI Origin 200 server, 
and 5 SGI workstations.

\bfheadno{COAPS. } The Center for Ocean-Atmosphere Prediction 
provides access
to a 16 processor SGI Origin 2000 with 4.6 Gigabytes of memory
and 320 Gigabytes of disk. In addition, the system possesses a 6 Terabyte
archival system.  This machine is a university-wide resource, 
and is not amenable to the types of computation envisioned herein.

The above equipment is supplemented by printing and backup
facilities in the various groups.
The research we propose in each area is very computationally
intensive and must be integrated with advanced pre- and
post-processing facilities.  Research will focus
on the development of tools which can semi-automatically 
generate highly efficient parallel code in several applied
disciplines.  The requested infrastructure will have 
a peak performance of at least one order of magnitude faster
than the the fastest machine available on campus, with more
disk, and more memory. This computer will allow tuning of codes
with a view towards executing them on much larger supercomputers
(e.g. those used by the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI))
while retaining optimal scaling properties.

\bfhead{Description of Requested Equipment. }
We will purchase equipment in three categories: 1) one cluster architecture
(SCM) constructed from commodity components (those used now or in the near
future by consumers), 2) one experimental parallel system (EPS) 
(distributed or single image), and 3) Information and Pervasive 
Infrastructure.  While we have determined
the categories, it is not realistic to make a decision on a particular 
vendor. To better understand the relationship between price and performance 
characteristics, we have elicited quotes for both the cluster and the 
EPM from Compaq, IBM, and SGI. Only SGI presented us with a cluster
with a Linux operating system, yet based on the yet to be announced
Merced chips.  The Merced chip is based on the IA-64, that will be 
supported by most major vendors. We expect that within 6 months that
other vendors will provide linux-based cluster  solutions based 
Merced.  

\bfheadno{Equipment. }
We anticipate in year 1  the installation 
of the workstation cluster, with a Gbit backbone. 
The cost will be approximately 
\$600,000, including 2 years maintenance.  
The cluster processors will be upgraded in year 3 and a slightly 
lesser cost (\$550,000).  In year 2, we will install the 32 cpu EPM at 
an estimated cost of \$600,000.  with an upgrade in year for at a cost
of \$550,000.

Peak performance of both commodity (IA-64) and proprietary (EV67,
Powerx) chips  are projected to increase by a factor 2 to 3 yearly to
satisfy the requirements of ASCI.  Depending on our purchase, 
we will replace IBM power 3 chips
with IBM Power 4 chips, Compaq EV67 chips with EV7 chips, and SGI
Merced IA-64 chips with McInckinly chips.  A specific upgrade program that 
permits the replacement of chips will be negotiated with the vendor
when the system is purchased.

To support the effort in the core technologies and the integration 
of research  and education, we will purchase a variety of smaller
hardware that includes mobile palm tops and mobile laptops with
associated PCI cards (they  will become available within the next
year), file and database servers, video servers, and trackers. The
technology is continuosly changing, so we have allocated between
\$100,000 and \$150,000 yearly for the purchase of this equipment. 

The majority of the purchases will be coverered at a cost of 2/3 from
NSF funds, and 1/3 from FSU funds. 

\bfheadno{Software. }
Software requirements includes operating systems, compilers, 
parallelization tools, and visualization tools.
\begin{itemize}
The hardware dominates the infrastructure cost.  Florida State 
University has agreements with SGI and IBM that substantially reduces
the cost of software (together, software components provided by the
vendors will cost less than \$50,000).  This includes compilers 
for C, C++, Fortran 77 and Fortran 90.  An additional cost  of 
\$25,000 to \$50,000 for the managed system is anticipated 
for third party software in the areas
of performance optimization and  debugging.  Packages include
TotalView and VAMPIR.  Parallel software environments for multinode
systems are available from IBM and Compaq.  SGI will provide a
completely Linux solution, even on its single system image, also based
on IA-64 components.


\bfheadno{Maintenance. }
Maintenance on the compute hardware is estimated to cost between 7 and 10
percent of total cost on a yearly basis (based on an average of 
IBM, SGI, and Compaq  pricing).  Although maintenance is included the 
first year,  we have negotiated a price with the vendors that includes
maintenance for two years.  
After two years of maintenance, the machines will 
be upgraded at a cost that once again includes two years of maintenance.
There will be no upgrades  to the computing infrastructure in the 5th 
year at which point, we expect CSIT students to maintain (at least) the 
cluster.
The exact specifications of the maintenance contracts will be negotiated 
upon  award of this proposal., and will demand onsite service
within 24 hours of failure.


\bfheadno{Technical Support. }
CSIT currently has 3 1/2 system administrators who are responsible
for the daily upkeep of CSIT resources, software upgrades, 
troubleshooting, helping users, and performing backups.  The EPM
requires direct management to insure that it maintains a high 
degree of availability.  The algorithmic development on these machines
is not conducive to low level experimentation.  On the other hand, 
the SCM will be maintained by students and postdoctoral researchers
active in the improvement of system tools, operating systems, and other 
low level development.  CSIT system administrators will remain available
to provide help as needed.  In the first year, some effort will be expended 
to become familiar with the latest cluster tools, and extend, if necessary, 
existing scripts at automating system administrative chores.
We do not anticipate an increased administrative load once the machines
are upgraded, except for a brief period when low level parameters will 
be readjusted to compensate for various architectural changes.

\subsection{Rationale}
\bfheadno{Equipment. }
We are proposing infrastructure to support an innovative new
multidisciplinary school of Computational Science and
Information Technology in the areas of research and education, 
and their integration in particular.  
The strongly multidisciplinary nature of the school 
leads to a strong interaction between computer science  activities
(for which clusters are a better environment), and computational 
and application science, for which a more integrated system, more akin
to the big teraflop machine (to be used as a production machine) to 
be ordered and one that tracks ASCI, is best.

Core technology research 
described in this proposal supports efforts in the areas of 
coupled-ocean atmosphere modeling, materials science, manufacturing, 
acoustics, and the modeling of aquifers.  In all cases, we 
will develop highly accurate numerical methods based on the newest
implicit algorithms.   These algorithms demand large memory sizes, 
and large caches to maximize their efficiency.  The availability of 
a mixed mode programming model (a distributed set of n-way 
nodes) will lead to algorithms suitable for the next generation of
supercomputers.  Indeed, IBM will be announcing 32-way Power 4 chips
within the next 1-3 years.  Already commodity chips (Xeon III) have 
4 processors per node.  The algorithm development demands  a computer
with high availability, low down time, easy maintenance, and very
high performance characteristics in terms of communication bandwidth,
memory bandwidth and latencies.  This
leads to the requirement of what we refer to as a ``managed system'',
a system on which students will not have access to the lowest levels
of the operating system for experimentation.  This machine will
primarily be used for algorithm development, which is a substantial
component of the proposed research.  

Among the remaining core technology considered in this proposal, 
problem solving environments
parallel Java, and the handling of large databases demand a 
combination of clustered computing and computing on a more 
integrated system.    
Problem solving environments are best built on a three tier
system (client, server, cluster), which can accommodate many processes 
(handled by the cluster) and the interaction of many simultaneous users 
(clients).  In most cases, the system is dominated by computational 
requirements, not communication bandwidth (the ideal situation for
clusters).  Throughput is not the primary concern of a problem solving
environment.  Users can wait 30 percent longer to have the system
automate their code generation in a period of hours 
(as compared to months of labor of hand-coding is necessary).
The research on HPJava leads to both a thread and an MPI
implementation.  The former requires a moderate size SMP or xUMA
(UMA,ccNUMA, or NUMA) machine while the latter is best implemented
on a cluster.   In particular, research on Jini, meant to support
the dynamic invocation of parallel codes is best performed on a
cluster architecture.  Applications of this technology includes
roaming agents, computational steering, and geographically distributed
computing to name a few.
We anticipate installing beta versions of GSN running at 
6.4 Gbits/sec under the ST protocol through a partnership with SGI.
The SGI linux cluster was showcased at Supercomputing '99. 
Networks of this speed and beyond will be deployed nationally 
within the next decade.  Experiments with a Gigabit or Gigabyte backbone
will serve to predict and correct problems that might arise when many
users interact on a wide area network at these speeds.  

Both the SCM and the EPM will serve as learning tools for CSIT
students. These two machines will complement each other and provide
several programming paradigms for students to experiments with
(OpenMP, MPI and a combination of the two).  Students will have the
opportunity to access the SCM to make kernel modifications for system
tuning.  This will not be possible on the EPM due to the need to 
low availability (i.e. single point of failure) of this class of computer.
Science portals developed in the next several years will support 
both research and education and will be strongly dependent on 
general information and pervasive computer infrastructure such 
as mobile computing (hand held and laptop), database servers, video 
servers, etc.  From previous work, the portals will emphasize 
web-based interaction with tools such as XML, MML, DHTML, and will 
require the acquisition of a variety of general purposes servers and 
storage to accomodate the expected growth in the data made available
to the outside community.


We are requesting computer infrastructure in three distinct classes.
The first is a cluster of 
workstations, based on the latest commodity chips, with a switched 
network of at least one Gigabit/sec, 
1/2 to 1 Gigabyte of memory, and at least 1/2 Terabytes of disk space.
The second system will be a Numa or SMP system.  Except for the 
interconnect, the machine characteristics per prcessor are expected to
be identical, as will the disk.  We refer to the latter computer as a 
managed system (that requires formal system administrator, and cannot
be experimented on at a low level by students or researchers). 
Recognizing that for algorithmic development, 
it is not important to have the largest possible system, 
we have allocated equal funds for both machines, to be purchased in 
two installments staggered at two year intervals.  We expect the
cluster to have twice the peak performance of the managed system.  
The funds allocated in years 1 and 2 for these machines are larger
than the cost to upgrade.   This is justified by the continued
expected strong increase in the price/performance ratio.  A slightly 
reduced cost for the system upgrade will degrade only slightly
the potential performance characteristics of the machine, while still
providing a substantial boost in performance.


Archival storage is not required in this proposal since at least
60 Terabytes will come online as part of the TFM.

\bfheadno{Software. }
Requested software includes the tools necessary for compilation in 
C, C++, Fortran 77, Fortran 90, and Java, along with performance analysis 
tools to help optimize parallel software.  
The SCM will be linux-based and most of the software is free.
open source. 

\bfheadno{Maintenance. }
Rather than pay maintenance for equipment on a yearly basis for 
the duration of the proposal, we will instead negotiate with the 
vendors to include a two year maintenance contract into the quipment at 
the time it is purchased.  Upon upgrade, a similar contract will 
be negotiated.   To reduce the cost, we will request service within 24
hours of failure.  Given the high availability of a cluster (does not have
a single point of failure), it is not necessary to obtain service quite
as fast.  


\subsection{User access}
The campus network provides 
access to a number of regional, national, and world-wide networks
including ESnet, NSFnet, HEPnet, BITnet, FIRN and SURAnet.  In addition,
two T1 connections to ESnet via the University of Texas at Austin and
Oak Ridge National Labs exist.
The campus backbone is a 1 Gigabit FDDI ring that connects the individual
research groups involved in this effort.  
The TFM is will be located at Innovation park (outside the main campus).
Current access to the CSIT
machine room (main campus) is at 100 Mbit/sec.  However, we anticipate a
1 Gbit/sec upgrade that will allow high bandwidth between 
the TFM and the smaller EPM/SCM at CSIT.
Florida State University is a member of Internet 2.

Off-campus connectivity is available via 28.8k or 
56k modems. The Academic Computing \& Network Services
which provides computer-related services to the university,
has new hardware for 576 lines with v.90 capability.

\subsection{Space for Equipment} 
A typical footprint for a single frame (in which nodes are housed)
$76" \rm{H} \times 36" \rm{W} \times 51" \rm{D}$ with a weight 
of $2000$ lbs fully configured with processors, I/O and peripherals. 
Each tall frame holds a maximum of 16 nodes (32 to 64 processors).  
We require a total of 1-2 frames for a total surface area of
$57$~ft$^2$.  In addition, space is required for the disk farm 
(the archival tape unit will reside at Innvotion Park) .  
Lastly, a prototypical configuration for the  1 Terabyte disk subsystem 
is a  4 Model D40's (from IBM) that 
reside in a rack of dimensions 
$60" \rm{H} \times 19" \rm{W} \times 28" \rm{D}$ ($\approx$ 4 ft$^2$).
A spacing of 3ft around every cabinet/rack should be left unused 
for maintenance.  
No funding from the university is requested.
 
\subsection{Institutional cost-sharing}
The Florida State University has agreed to provide matching funds in the 
amount of \$1,000,000 to support the purchase of equipment 
to support the research and education activities proposed by the 
School of Computational Science \& Information Technology.

Spefically, Florida State University funds will be responsible for the 
purchase of the Experimental Parallel System (EPS), to be mostly 
used for research  in core information technology and education.
This system will also serve as a testing platform prior to the transfer
of application simulation codes to the larger Teraflop Machine (TFM).

Florida State University is committed to  the allocation of 
5 to 8 million dollars to the 
the purchase of a massively parallel supercomputer that will achieve 
over a Teraflop of processing power over the next two years.  A 
request for proposals will be sent out at the end of January, and 
the system is scheduled for installation by the end of October of this 
year.  We estimate that upwards of 512 processors, each  with a peak
performance of 2 Gflops, 1 Gigabyte of memory, will provide computing
cycles for university researchers to conduct production runs. About
10 percent of the machine will be reserved for computational science
activities such as benchmarking, scalability testing etc.   


**********************************************************************
          Gordon Erlebacher
          School of Computational Science & Information Technology
          150 Dirac Science Library
          Florida State University
          Tallahassee, FL 32306-4120

          Tel: (850) 645-0308
          FAX: (850) 645-0300
**********************************************************************

