Linux elbows into SUPERCOMPUTER turf

摘要

Amerada Hess, WesternGeco change seismic oil exploration systems. Linux-based systems have gained a foothold in a traditional supercomputer stronghold: seismic oil exploration. Oil and gas giant Amerada Hess's Houston-based Exploration department switched to Linux for three-dimensional (3-D) modeling used to find oil and gas in hard-to-reach underwater areas. Separately, WesternGeco, jointly owned by Schlumberger and Baker Hughes, also turned to Linux to produce 3-D images of the earth's subsurface. Frustrated with the high costs and difficult upgrades of traditional supercomputing hard-ware used to process terabyte-sized exploration data volumes, Amerada Hess ported its IBM supercomputing software to Linux-based software servers. The company replaced its