Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO (Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation), has issued a tender to replace its Silicon Graphics Altix 4700 systems with Linux x86-based kit.

The tender, which closes on 1 March, seeks a system with double the capacity of the Altix, compatibility with existing storage systems, and software compatibility with other CSIRO environments.

The agency says the new system should have a minimum of 128 processor cores, 1TB of addressable memory, and should also be compatible with the Australian National University’s NCI (National Computational Infrastructure) and the Bureau of Meteorology’s Intel-based Sun Constellation systems.

Serious connectivity is the other requirement: bidders should be able to ship a minimum of four 10 Gbps Ethernet interfaces (expandable to eight) and 16 FibreChannel ports (expandable to 32). ®