Implementing an affordable high performance computing platform for teaching-oriented computer science curriculum

Abstract

With the advances in computing power, High Performance Computing (HPC) platform has impact on not only scientific research in advanced organizations but also computer science curriculum in the educational community. For example, multi-core programming and distributed and parallel system are highly desired courses in the computer science classroom. However, the high cost of HPC equipments and maintenance makes it difficult to be employed in conventional computer science curriculum. Specifically, teaching-oriented institutions cannot afford the HPC due to the high cost, lack of experience and less research infrastructure. The main objective of this paper is to present an affordable and easy-to-use high performance cluster system that can be used in teaching-oriented computer science curriculum. In order to address this, we design and implement an affordable high performance cluster system based on PlayStation 3® PS3 is a well-known game console manufactured by Sony. Since each PS3 console has a IBM Cell BE processor that consists of 8 Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs) and 1 Power Processing Element (PPE), it can be used as a processing node with multiple-core processor in the cluster system. As a result, the PS3 Cluster system provides enough computing power as a HPC for computer science courses, while the total cost is less than 10% of existing cluster system in market that has the similar performance. In addition, the implemented cluster system has been used for new and existing computer science courses, such as CPSC 592: Parallel and Distributed Database, CPSC 590: Parallel and Distributed Processing, and CPSC 591: Parallel Programming. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.