Re: the benifits

[Kurt Keville <kkeville@MIT.EDU>]

My rule of thumb is that if a smaller, faster solution costs more than
twice as much as 2 other solutions, don't do it. In other words, don't
violate Moore's Law to accommodate Amdahl's Law (n.b. as far as gross
overgeneralizations go this seems to hold up pretty well). This is why I
would rather buy 2 Athlon boxes than 1 (equivalent) Athlon MP box. CPU
density is not necessarily a goal of the Beowulf archetype and DC real
estate is one of the "free" variables in the equation... high speed
interconnects don't change the cost structure as much as they used to; you
can get Gigabit cards for $100 now....