War! What is it good for? Linux supercomputing

Linux is going to war - and this time, it's not with Microsoft. The US Department of Defense has bought two Linux supercomputers to help it with war games.

The two supercomputers will be used to by the DoD in battlefield simulations in virtual war zones across the world. The extra processing power will mean the DoD can play with its toy soldiers on a larger scale than was possible before - 3,000 troops can be now be virtually manoeuvred among one million civilian vehicles.

The two Linux Networx clusters will be set up at the US Air Force's Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC) and the Aeronautical Systems Center Major Shared Resource Center, as part of a drive by the Department to modernise its computing facilities.

Linux Networx is also under contract to supply the DoD with another four system. One, destined for the Army Research laboratory, will be a custom built 2,132 processor machine.

The Department of Defense has ignored the thoughts of SCO's CEO Darl McBride about Linux being a threat to national security. MacBride sent a memo to all members of Congress saying: "Open-source software - available widely through the internet - has the potential to provide our nation's enemies or potential enemies with computing capabilities that are restricted by US law."

SCO also threatened the US government with possible legal action when the Department of Energy invested in a Linux supercomputer.

The predictions of doom aren't cutting any ice with the US military, however. Major Kevin Benedict, program manager at MHPCC, said in a statement that the technology has been picked because it was "reliable, robust and mature enough to support our demanding environments".