The Siberian approach for an open-system high-performance computing architecture

Describes the `Siberia´ project, which is being developed at the Computing Centre of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This project has a pragmatic and a research objective. The pragmatic objective is the creation of a high-performance computer system (HCS) intended for the operation of the supercomputing centre for global simulation and large-scale computation. The research objective is the investigation of ways to develop open general-purpose parallel systems of special-purpose parallel components. The latter should be a basis for operational design, development or adaptation of scalable problem-oriented systems. The concepts of large-block system design, sustaining multiple hardware paradigms, multiple software models, as well as existing languages and environments, are considered. The architecture and software of the HCS are presented. Topics for possible research cooperation are emphasized