Compute Node Kernel (CNK) is the

node In general, a node is a localized swelling (a "knot") or a point of intersection (a vertex). Node may refer to: In mathematics * Vertex (graph theory), a vertex in a mathematical graph *Vertex (geometry), a point where two or more curves, lines ...

level

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

for the IBM Blue Gene series of

supercomputer A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...

s.''Euro-Par 2004 Parallel Processing: 10th International Euro-Par Conference'' 2004, by Marco Danelutto, Marco Vanneschi and Domenico Laforenza pages 835''Euro-Par 2006 Parallel Processing: 12th International Euro-Par Conference'', 2006, by Wolfgang E. Nagel, Wolfgang V. Walter and Wolfgang Lehner page

Operating system

The compute nodes of the IBM Blue Gene family of supercomputers run CNK, a lightweight kernel that runs on each node and supports one application running for one user on that node. To maximize operating efficiency, the design of CNK was kept simple and minimal. It was implemented in about 5,000 lines of C++ code. Physical memory is statically mapped and the CNK neither needs nor provides scheduling or

context switch In computing, a context switch is the process of storing the state of a process or thread, so that it can be restored and resume execution at a later point, and then restoring a different, previously saved, state. This allows multiple processes ...

ing, given that at each point it runs one application for one user. By not allowing

virtual memory In computing, virtual memory, or virtual storage, is a memory management technique that provides an "idealized abstraction of the storage resources that are actually available on a given machine" which "creates the illusion to users of a ver ...

or multi-tasking, the design of CNK aimed to devote as many cycles as possible to application processing. CNK delegates file

input/output In computing, input/output (I/O, i/o, or informally io or IO) is the communication between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world, such as another computer system, peripherals, or a human operator. Inputs a ...

(I/O) to dedicated I/O nodes which run the INK (I/O Node Kernel) operating system, based on a modified

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

References

{{IBM operating systems Supercomputer operating systems

Operating system

See also

References