According to Dr. T. Symon Chang, a former Intel and IBM executive who founded Tyan Computer Corporation (www.tyanpsc.com), “yesterday’s top 500 supercomputer can now be sitting right at the side of your desk.” Recently, Tyan announced the availability of their TyanPSC T-600 series Personal Supercomputer featuring new Xeon quad-core server processors from Intel. A fully integrated five-node cluster, the PSC delivers computation capability while only requiring power from a standard 15-amp wall outlet.

WFS: What is a PSC?

SC: In a nutshell, 40 CPU cores clustered together in a low-noise, standalone package that can be deployed anywhere, in your office, on the trading room floor or anywhere where there’s a standard 15-amp outlet.

WFS: Sounds rather unique to us?

SC: It is. We’ve put a powerful supercomputer into a manageable, mobile chassis that allows you to have dedicated compute resources by your desk. It is cool and quiet and very compatible with office space. We are putting real compute capacity into the hands of the researcher or trader.

WFS: Is this a must-have for quants?

SC: It’s a flexible model for hedge funds, trading firms and banks. For example, we see two usage scenarios, the first an analyst who runs his Excel-based program on a workstation to evaluate market conditions and opportunities. The analysis may take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours but with a T-600 PSC, the application could be run in a matter of seconds to a few minutes.

WFS: Then this is well suited to quants who see the need to move to a cluster-based application but lack the IT background necessary to build and maintain a cluster?

SC: Correct. The second scenario involves an analyst at a large firm that uses sophisticated algorithms and programs on a large data center cluster.

WFS: But this requires him to submit his jobs and be at the mercy of the priority scheduler.

SC: Yes, it does.

WFS: But with a dedicated TyanPSC…?

SC: …the analyst has complete ownership of the compute resources to execute as many scenarios as he needs, at his own pace, time and place.

WFS: But is it difficult to deploy?

SC: Actually, it’s rather easy-to-deploy PSC. The complexity of networking and clustering multiple nodes and getting the compatible drivers configured typically requires an experienced IT professional to integrate and maintain the cluster.

WFS: How is the PSC different?

SC: The T-600 PSC not only comes pre-integrated but with the OS pre-installed, ready to deploy applications, thereby taking the headache out of cluster integration, what we call, ‘Clustering for Dummies.’

WFS: Well, that’s not a term you hear every day, is it?

SC: No, it’s not. Taking this point a step further, you can deploy it anywhere you have power – at home, a branch office, remote site, an airplane – and if you need to drop it into a client site to work on proprietary data, just ship it in and roll it up to the network.

WFS: How does it speak to firms considering HPC?

SC: To make it even easier for the beginning cluster user or expert system administrator to deploy, it’s available with Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, allowing financial firms to take full advantage of high-performance personal supercomputing.

WFS: How powerful is it?

SC: The T-650QX 40-core personal supercomputer, based on Intel® Xeon™ 5300 series quad core processors, has a peak performance rating of over 200 GFLOPS. Add to that an optional InfiniBand interconnect and you have a desk-side powerhouse that will compress your time to do a considerable amount of analysis.

WFS: Over 200 GFLOPS?

SC: Yes, Over 200 GFLOPS of peak performance.

WFS: That’s a rather impactful number. 200 GFLOPS.

SC: We had one customer that reduced his trade analysis time from six minutes to 40 seconds. In an industry where opportunities come and go in seconds, the Tyan PSC will accelerate your time to money.