In January 2004 CraneDigital took the small step toward Linux. With no formal computer science training or education, this was not done lightly. From the beginning, CraneDigital has been about creativity; what you do with the computer – not the computer itself. However, Linux was appearing on more and more radars, and we felt it important to know what was going on with the penguin. At some point, the platforms we're now familiar and comfortable with will change. The question is, what will they change in to, and will we as a company be able to change with them.

CraneDigital chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux as their Linux solution. Red Hat's support and entitlement policy meant they'd be there when it came time for questions. The time came sooner than expected, and they were there. Through a sometimes painful year of tech support calls with basic questions, the patient Red Hat support team helped us get our system, then systems running smoothly with minimal time costs. Because nothing critical was being run on Linux during the time, this approach worked well-which was the point of the exercise: to get systems set up and running smoothly before you need them. A "just-in-time" (JIT) approach to technology solutions can be disastrous.

Why LINUX?

A friend of mine, who also happens to be an expert programmer with NVIDIA once asked me, "why?" At the time all I could muster was, "because I think it's going to be important for us to know Linux in the future, and you have to start sometime." I believe that more than ever now. Admittedly, much of our interest in Linux has to do with our 3D rendering. Pure rendering horsepower accomplished on as many machines as you can get your hands on. All of these machines need an operating system, and all of these machines need to be managed and work well together. Even with a small handful of machines, this task can be daunting. Enter a cluster situation and tools built specifically for such a task. Many of these tools are available through the pervasive Open Source community in the computer world.

The move was made to the 1U set up. Anyone familiar with a data center knows what this is. For the rest of you, it's a steel rack, typically 42U or about 6 feet tall (1U = 1.75") that allows extremely efficient placement of many computers. These computer are specially designed 1U boxes about an inch and a half tall and 20 " wide that slide into the rails of this rack. Typically a rack has 1 display that controls all machines in the system, with a switch allowing you to toggle between computers you're viewing. In theory you can stack many, many computers into this rack without increasing the footprint additional machines will occupy in the office space. The challenges are cooling this system, and the power it draws.

As we step forward into the Linux and Beowolf cluster realm, we're excited. Getting everything set up and working perfectly is an extreme challenge that we enter into with the beginning of 2005. But that has been what CraneDigital has been about for the past 10 years of life: pushing boundaries aside and saying "what if?" If we're willing to take the risk, to step out in faith and apply ourselves, we believe that anything is possible.

Hang on to your Red Hats.

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