Before revision: Given that modern massively parallel supercomputers typically separate computations from other services by using multiple types of nodes, they usually run different operating systems on different nodes, e.g., using a small and efficient lightweight kernel such as Compute Node Kernel (CNK) or Compute Node Linux (CNL) on compute nodes, but a larger system such as a Linux-derivative on server and input/output (I/O) nodes.An Evaluation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Cray XT3 by Sadaf R. Alam, et al., International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, February 2008 vol.
After revision: Given that modern massively parallel supercomputers typically separate computations from other services by using multiple types of nodes, they usually run different operating systems on different nodes, e.g., using a small and efficient lightweight kernel such as Compute Node Kernel (CNK) or Compute Node Linux (CNL) on compute nodes, but a larger system such as a Linux distribution on server and input/output (I/O) nodes.An Evaluation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Cray XT3 by Sadaf R. Alam, et al., International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, February 2008 vol.