Charlie Peck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote > I think clusters like the one Eric wants to build have /significant/ > educational value, both in the building and the use. How else does one > learn to do parallel/distributed programming if not on a cluster, even > a "toy" one? Sure the single AMD64 will be more powerful but it won't > provide an opportunity to learn about message passing, speedup, > efficiency, problem decomposition, etc.
Interesting question that, how else might this be done? I wonder if one couldn't set up a single modern computer, with a fast CPU and tons of memory, as N virtual machines, for instance using VMware, and then run a sort of virtual cluster? Obviously there wouldn't be any performance advantage to doing this but it might allow the subject to be taught when a real clusters isn't available. Presumably VMware already has some method for handling the network needs of each virtual machine, although I'm guessing it might not extend all the way to a DHCP boot emulation. There would also need to be some sort of peculiar performance measurement system at the VMware level since it would have to pretend that the N machines running sequentially were actually working in parallel, and report performance as if they had been. Seems doable. Maybe even worth doing so that this subject could be more easily taught. Regards, David Mathog [EMAIL PROTECTED] Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
