Abstract:
With the purchase of a Cray-2 supercomputer, Eli Lilly and Company needed a high-performance network to provide communications with this computer. At the time of installation of the Cray, this network had to provide access from VAX/VMS computers using Cray Station software while also supporting communications from UNIX and other machines utilizing TCP/IP. The capability of access from other computers, especially IBM mainframes, was also desirable in the longer term. Finally, this network needed to have a migration path to standards-based networks in the future, including the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) and the High Performance Parallel Interface (HPPI). The author discusses the process used in selecting this network. All three of the systems examined, HYPERchannel 100, UltraNet, and the VAX Supercomputer Gateway, are viable systems that are being used successfully in multiple locations. Lilly's particular set of requirements made HYPERchannel the best choice for them. It provided the greatest degree of connectivity and a certain amount of greater interoperability, with its ability to run Cray Station over HYPERchannel. It also has the slowest speed, however, UltraNet offers much greater speed potential, but provides its best connectivity between large IBM 3090's and Crays having HPPI channels. The VAX Supercomputer Gateway may provide the fastest speeds between VAX and Cray, but is limited in its protocol handling and its ability to network to other systems.