The AMD64 platform is perfect for CFD!

Snorre Heimsund

As a matter of fact Los Alamos National Laboratory recently decided to build its new Linux cluster for the advanced simulation and computing (ASCI) program using AMD Opteron processors. More information about this can be found here: http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/pa/newsbull...5/text02.shtml

If you are not familiar with what the AMD64 platform is, then please have a look at this: http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...8_9331,00.html

Boxx Technologies (http://www.boxxtech.com) have already started shipping high-end AMD Opteron workstations, but several other manufacturers also offer similar and more reasonable solutions and they can be located on this page: http://www2.amd.com/us-en/sbl/front/...l?redir=CPOP07

Windows 64-bit for AMD64 is available as a beta version for developers today, but several Linux 64-bit versions (SuSE, Turbo Linux, etc) and compilers (see below) already exist with full AMD64 support. All current 32-bit x86 versions of Windows and Linux will ofcourse work perfectly with AMD64, but then without the benefits of the 64-bit processor architecture.

I've collected some links to pages about AMD64 that I hope you all will find interesting:

Some developer information for AMD64: http://developer.amd.com & http://www.devx.com/amd/Door/16009 & http://www.amd64.org & http://www.migratec.com

Some compilers for AMD64: http://www.pgroup.com/AMD64 & http://www.absoft.com/opteron.html & http://www.nag.co.uk/nagware/np/NP_trial.asp

Some benchmarks of the AMD Opteron processor: http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/...-opteron2.html & http://www.caselab.okstate.edu/research/benchmark.html

Some AMD64 technology in-depth reviews: http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=55000251 & http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/...ily/index.html