The SGI Origin 2000 is a family of mid-range and high-end server computers developed and manufactured by Silicon Graphics (SGI). They were introduced in 1996 to succeed the SGI Challenge and POWER Challenge. At the time of introduction, these ran the IRIX operating system, originally version 6.4 and later, 6.5. A variant of the Origin 2000 with graphics capability is known as the Onyx2. An entry-level variant based on the same architecture but with a different hardware implementation is known as the Origin 200. The Origin 2000 was succeeded by the Origin 3000 in July 2000, and was discontinued on June 30, 2002.
Models
The family was announced on October 7, 1996. The project was code named Lego, and also known as SN0, to indicate the first in a series of scalable node architectures, contrasting with previous symmetric multiprocessor architectures in the SGI Challenge series.
The Origin 2100 is mostly the same as the other models except that it is not upgradeable to other models. (unless the router cards, etc. were replaced)
The highest CPU count that SGI marketed for the Origin 2000 is 128 CPUs; above 64 CPUs the product was originally branded "CRAY Origin 2000" since Cray Research has just been merged with SGI. Three Origin 2000 models are capable of using 512 CPUs and 512 GB of memory but these were never marketed as a system to customers. One of the 512-CPU Origin 2000 series was installed at SGI's facility in Eagan, Minnesota for test purposes and the other two were sold to NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California for specialized scientific computing. The 512-CPU Origin 2800s cost roughly $40 million each and the delivery of the Origin 3000 systems, scalable up to 512 or 1024 CPUs at a lower price per performance, made the 512-CPU Origin 2800 obsolete.
Several customers also bought 256-CPU Origin 2000 series systems, although they were never marketed as a product by SGI either.
The largest installation of SGI Origin 2000 series was Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) Blue Mountain at Los Alamos National Labs. It included 48 Origin 2000 series 128-CPU systems all connected via High Performance Parallel Interface (HIPPI) for a total of 6144 processors. At the time it was tested, it placed second on the TOP500 list of fastest computers in the world. That test was completed with only 40 nodes of 128 CPUs each and recorded a sustained 1.6 teraflops. With all nodes connected, it was able to sustain 2.1 teraflops and peak of over 2.5 teraflops. Los Alamos National Laboratory also had another 12 Origin 128-CPU system (for a total of 1536 CPUs) as part of the same testing.
The climate simulation laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) had an Origin 2000 system named "Ute" with 128 CPUs. It was delivered on May 18, 1998, and decommissioned on July 15, 2002. A smaller system at NCAR was named dataproc, delivered on March 29, with 16 CPUs. The systems at NASA Ames included the one named for Harvard Lomax with 512 CPUs, one named for Joseph Steger with 128 CPUs, one named for Grace Hopper with 64CPUs, and one named for Alan Turing with 24 CPUs.
Hardware
Each Origin 2000 module is based on nodes that are plugged into a backplane. Each module can contain up to four node boards, two router boards and twelve XIO options. The modules are then mounted inside a deskside enclosure or a rack. Deskside enclosures can only contain one module, while racks can contain two. In configurations with more than two modules, multiple racks are used.
Figures specified are for maximum configurations.
The Origin 200 uses some of the architectural components, but in a very different physical realization that is not scalable.
Architecture
An Origin 2000 system is composed of nodes linked together by an interconnection network. It uses the distributed shared memory sometimes called Scalable Shared-Memory Multiprocessing (S2MP) architecture. The Origin 2000 uses NUMAlink (originally named CrayLink) for its system interconnect. The nodes are connected to router boards, which use NUMAlink cables to connect to other nodes through their routers. The Origin 2000's network topology is a bristled fat hypercube. In configurations with more than 64 processors, a hierarchical fat hypercube network topology is used instead. Additional NUMAlink cables, called Xpress links can be installed between unused Standard Router ports to reduce latency and increase bandwidth. Xpress links can only be used in systems that have 16 or 32 processors, as these are the only configurations with a network topology that enables unused ports to be used in such a way.