Tricky day at the office

Jeff Cowan phones up Compaq software support while Marc Genty and Pam Gillman discuss some glitches encountered while updating firmware and installing compiler fixes on prospect, the Compaq ES40 cluster.

Jeff, Marc, and Pam are software engineers in the Supercomputer Systems Group (SSG) of SCD's High-Performance Systems Section. Their job is to keep NCAR supercomputers running, which they do by administering systems, upgrading software, and detecting and isolating problems. They also develop tools to monitor systems and provide information to end users -- for instance, data about jobs running on the supercomputers.

SSG also helps the SCD Consulting Group solve problems to determine if bugs experienced by users are in the application or something happening on the system.

Photo: Lynda Lester/SCD