CHARGED with analyzing and processing computerized seismic and petroleum engineering data, Saudi Aramco’s Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center (EXPEC) is turning to PC clusters running the Linux operating system, as a less expensive and more powerful alternative to supercomputers. “The basic concept of a cluster is very simple: It is a group of PC processors, not too different from those in the PC we might have at home or at the office, working in parallel to provide the power of a supercomputer,” said Suhaib Khan, leader, Linux Clusters project. The result is a “cost-effective platform that we can grow in while maintaining our vendor-independent strategy,” said Ahmed A. Al-Moosa, manager, EXPEC Network Operations. Combining 1,900 processors, the new Linux cluster has a computing capacity of 1.5 teraflops or 1.5 trillion “floating point operations” per second. It is the most powerful computing system in Saudi Aramco and doubles the existing computing power in EXPEC.