Bulletin 126 - 2004 Oct 05

1. HPCCC SX-6 and NEC cross-compilers - f90/sxf90 R302
2. Web site changes
3. CSIRO - cherax interruptions and slow response times

A newer version of the NEC Fortran90/SX compiler - Rev302 -has been installed on all SX-6 nodes and all cross-environments. This fixes several NEC PSRs reported by HPCCC users and staff. It is now available for user evaluation purposes. On cross-compiler systems, typing the two commands:

     sxcross latest
     sxf90 -V

should show

FORTRAN90/SX Version 2.0 for SX-6
f90 driver for SX       (c) 1995,2004 NEC Corporation
        Rev.302 2004/01/25
f90 compiler for SX     (c) 1995,2004 NEC Corporation
        Rev.302 2004/04/12

After many trials and tribulations, a new web site structure is now in operation.

• www.hpccc.gov.au is now a Bureau of Meteorology server, visible to the outside world. (Follow the 'Documentation' link from http://intra.hpccc.gov.au for all the HPCCC user documentation: bannerman.hpc.csiro.au has gone away. Further developments are 'real soon now').
• www.hpsc.csiro.au is the world view of CSIRO HPSC activities.

CSIRO HPSC and HPCCC documentation is now accessible to CSIRO users by following the "Documentation" link at www.hpsc.csiro.au or intra.hpsc.csiro.au. Following the link on this page to "HPSC User Guides and Documentation for installed HPSC Software" leads to a prototype set of pages where we will progressively move most of the current documentation and user guides from bannerman.hpc.csiro.au (this server will be turned off).

The problem reporting system (wreq) is still located at www.hpc.csiro.au, but will be moved to intra.hpsc.csiro.au soon. Some pages may not work (yet). Other problems may be experienced during this major transition. If you have problems, do a browser "reload" and check again before reporting to hpchelp@hpccc.gov.au

We have experienced more than enough interruptions to service on cherax in recent weeks. SGI has identified the problem, and a fix was installed on the morning of Tuesday 4th October. The upgrade from 900 MHz to 1.3 GHz processors commenced at that time. Unfortunately, the software upgrade to go with the patch took longer to install than expected.

There will be two further interruptions to complete the upgrade - the first for about 30 minutes from 10:00 local time on Thursday 7th October.

See the file /etc/motd on cherax for further details of outages.

The slow response has been identified as occurring during DMF housekeeping, and is being investigated.