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Supercomputing cluster-building game attracts crowds

Safe to say Rack-A-Node, the Purdue-developed supercomputing cluster-building game, was a hit at the SuperComputing '08 (SC08) conference — having drawn an international collection of players at the premier gathering for high-performance computing, networking, storage and analysis.

Rack-A-Node is a “tower-defense” strategy game that has players build and operate a simulated supercomputer to manage waves of science jobs in fields ranging from climate-modeling and physics to chemistry and pharmacy, said Kyle Bowen, manager of ITaP's informatics team, which created the game.

SC08 visitors gave a console version of Rack-A-Node, which also is available on the Web, a spin at Purdue’s booth and played it on a big-screen monitor at Purdue's Cluster Challenge team table. Players start with a small computer and have to manage a series of jobs successfully to earn funding to buy an even larger machine and advance to subsequent levels of the game.

The booth at the world’s largest high-performance computing conference was designed to promote Purdue, ITaP — Purdue's central information technology organization — and ITaP's research and discovery arm, the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing. The conference took place Nov. 15-21, 2008, in Austin, Texas.

The theme of Purdue's 2008 booth was: “No cycle left behind, no byte left unexplored.” That relates to the creative ways ITaP is finding to improve scientific productivity, said John Campbell, associate vice president for information technology, who heads the Rosen Center.

For example, Purdue’s Condor pool — a high-throughput distributed computing system that makes use of otherwise idle machines in offices, labs and elsewhere for research purposes and is more than 20,000 processors strong — was highlighted in a colorful animated short film at the conference.

“We will be demonstrating a series of projects that we have implemented or expanded over the past year,” Campbell said.

Among other things, Purdue’s booth also provided information to potential Purdue students and to job seekers about University academic programs and positions with ITaP and the Rosen Center.

Writer: Greg Kline, science and technology writer, ITaP, (765) 494-8167, gkline@purdue.edu

Photo caption: Marc Noguera from Barcelona, Spain, playing Rack-A-Node at the Purdue Cluster Challenge team table. Cluster Challenge team members Alex Younts and David King are in the background with the SiCortex computer they used in the competition.

Last updated: Sept. 18, 2009