Re: Getting Started
Kurt,
> I have put together a µCluster that addresses some of these concerns.
Very interesting, yours is a more solid-engineering type of approach, not
a surprise considering you address!...
> I eschewed latency concerns in favor of bandwidth ones and implemented a
> channel-bonding scheme much like the one used at http://ilab.usc.edu/beo.
How does bonding of 100 Mbps cards compare with Gigabit Ehternet these
days? The cards are not all that expensive anymore, but I guess the
network equipment still is. We got a 3Com server card for about US$ 500
some time ago, but I hear there are some going for less than US$ 200 now.
> I agree with many of Jorge's suggestions (I ran his page through the URL
> translator at worldlingo.com)
If this worked well, Andrew's translation job may already be half done!
> and for raw heat-spewing, number-crunching, beowulf-thrashing
> performance, AMD CPUs are the way to go...
Yes, and for having a bit of heat trouble too. One of the nodes has been
bothering us sporadically. So we have 50 large fans in the buying queue.
> ...now if only we could get the data to and from the AMD MoBos faster!
Well, speaking of latency, I understand there are two major causes: the
kernel's TCP stack and the switches. With wire-speed switches I presume
the former is the main one these days. I hear there is a public drive
somewhere for 3Com Gigabit cards for using them without going through the
kernel networking layer. Does anybody know anything about this? If true it
could be a big plus for reducing latency.
Cheers,
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Jorge L. deLyra, Associate Professor of Physics
The University of Sao Paulo, IFUSP-DFMA
For more information: finger delyra@latt.if.usp.br
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