I have recently completed a number of performance tests on a Beowulf cluster, using up to 48 dual-core P4D nodes, connected by an Extreme Networks Gigabit edge switch. The tests consist of single and multi-node application benchmarks, including DLPOLY, GROMACS, and VASP, as well as specific tests of network cards and switches. I used TCP sockets with OpenMPI v1.2 and MPI/GAMMA over Gigabit ethernet. MPI/GAMMA leads to significantly better scaling than OpenMPI/TCP in both network tests and in application benchmarks. The overall performance of the MPI/GAMMA cluster on a per cpu basis was found to be comparable to a dual-core Opteron cluster with an Infiniband interconnect. The DLPoly benchmark showed similar scaling to those reported for an IBM p690. The performance using TCP was typically a factor of 2 less in these same tests. Here are a couple of examples from the DLPOLY benchmark 1 (27,000 NaCl ions)
CPUS OpenMPI/TCP (P4D) MPI/GAMMA (P4D) OpenMPI/Infiniband (Opteron 275) 1 1255 1276 1095 2 614 635 773 4 337 328 411 8 184 173 158 16 125 95 84 32 82 56 50 64 84 34 42 A detailed write up can be found at: http://ladd.che.ufl.edu/research/beoclus/beoclus.htm Tony Ladd Chemical Engineering University of Florida ------------------------------- Tony Ladd Chemical Engineering University of Florida PO Box 116005 Gainesville, FL 32611-6005 Tel: 352-392-6509 FAX: 352-392-9513 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://ladd.che.ufl.edu _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, [email protected] To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
