Grid-Enabling Features of the Dawning 4000A High-Performance Computer

The objectives of grid computing are resource sharing and cooperative working over Internet.Grid is the next wave of Internet after WWW.High-performance computers are main resource providers for sharing, and grid will become the main application environment of high-performance computers.So grid is a key factor for pushing high-performance computers’ development ahead.The development of high-performance computers must take the requirements of grid into account, and provide essential supports.Dawning 4000A is a high-performance computer developed by the Institute of Computing Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences.It is funded by the 863 National High-Tech Program, and has been installed at Shanghai Supercomputing Center as a key node of Chinese National Grid.In this paper, grid-enabling features of the Dawning 4000A system are described in detail.These features provide supports for grid computing in different aspects, including computer architecture, system hardware, and software.Dawning 4000A has made progress in grid-enabling technologies used in high-performance computers.