简介：LargescaleQCDMonteCarlocalculationshavetypicallybeenperformedoneithercommercialsupercomputersorspeciallybuiltmassivelyparallelcomputerssuchasFermilab'sACPMAPS.Commodityclustersequippedwithhighperformancenetworkingequipmentpresentanattractivealternative,achievingsuperiorperformancetopriceratiosandofferingclearupgradepaths.WedescribetheconstructionandresultstodateofFermilab'sprototypeproductioncluster,whichconsistsof80dualPentiumⅢsystemsinterconnectedwithMyrinetnetworkinghardware.Wedescribesoftwaretoolsandtechniqueswehavedevelopedforoperatingsysteminstallationandadministration.WediscusssoftwareoptimizationsusingthePentium'sbuilt-inparallelcomputationfacilities(SSE),Finally,wepresentshortandlongtermplansfortheconstructionoflargerfacilities.