Re: Rationale: No New OS.

From: Dan Clemmensen (Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com)
Date: Sun Nov 22 1998 - 17:49:12 MST


Ken Meyering wrote:
>
> Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com (Dan Clemmensen):
>
> URL re: Linux clusters
>
> http://www.globec.com.au/LDP/HOWTO/Parallel-Processing-HOWTO-3.html
>
> -------------------
> ken@define.com

Interesting, but fairly basic. I should tell you a little about myself.
I've been a data communications programmer for over 25 years.
In 1985, I was one of the founders of the company I still work for.
We've been building peer-processor datacomms swithces since I designed
the architecture for our first one in 1985. I do try to keep up with
this stuff. Please beleive me when I say that the networking isn't
particularly hard. The problem is in task assignment and task migration.

Note that when the computers are all in the same room, there are cheaper
ways to build a Beowulf than by using ether-switches. In particular,
if the comuters are arranged in a grid, each computer can use two 100BaseT
cards instead of one. In this arrangement each computer can act as a crosspoint
for its row and column, switching on average only as many packets as it
originates or terminates. This gives you massive, incrementally expandble
bandwidth for approximately $50/node.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:49:50 MST