Does NASA use Windows or Linux?

NASA’s Operating System Choice: Linux Dominates Supercomputing

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is renowned for its advanced technological capabilities, including its use of supercomputers for complex scientific simulations and data analysis. In the realm of high-performance computing, NASA has opted for Linux as its operating system of choice, powering its primary supercomputer, Pleiades, and numerous other high-performance computing clusters.

Why Linux?

Linux is an open-source operating system that offers several advantages for NASA’s supercomputing needs:

• Stability: Linux is known for its robustness and stability, making it suitable for running continuous simulations and large-scale data processing.
• Scalability: Linux is designed to support massively parallel computing environments, allowing NASA to distribute workloads across multiple compute nodes.
• Flexibility: Linux’s modular architecture enables NASA to customize the operating system to meet specific requirements, such as security and performance optimizations.
• Cost-Effectiveness: As an open-source platform, Linux eliminates licensing fees and provides significant cost savings compared to proprietary operating systems.

Pleiades: NASA’s Linux-Powered Supercomputer

Pleiades is NASA’s primary supercomputer, located at the Ames Research Center in California. It consists of over 23,000 compute nodes, each equipped with dual Intel Xeon processors and NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. Pleiades runs on a customized distribution of Linux known as “CentOS,” which provides a stable and optimized platform for demanding scientific workloads.

Pleiades is used by researchers from various disciplines, including astrophysics, computational fluid dynamics, and climate modeling. Its processing power enables scientists to conduct simulations that would be impossible on smaller, less capable systems.

Other High-Performance Computing Clusters at NASA

In addition to Pleiades, NASA utilizes numerous other high-performance computing clusters that are also based on Linux. These clusters include:

• Columbia: A 6,000-node cluster located at the Goddard Space Flight Center, used for Earth science simulations.
• Discover: A 1,500-node cluster located at the Glenn Research Center, used for aerospace engineering and materials science.
• Vulcan: A 1,000-node cluster located at the Ames Research Center, used for astrobiology and planetary science.

Conclusion

Linux has become the preferred operating system for NASA’s supercomputing and high-performance computing clusters due to its stability, scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. Pleiades, NASA’s primary supercomputer, runs on a customized distribution of Linux, enabling scientists to conduct groundbreaking research across a wide range of scientific disciplines. The continued use of Linux by NASA highlights its importance in powering the next generation of supercomputers and advancements in space exploration.