On Wed, Aug 22, 2007 at 09:53:20PM +0800, Li, Bo wrote: > Quad-core means not only faster speed, but also cheaper system > expenses. It can do much in HPC or HPS areas. Let's enjoy it.
The question in the cluster world is how well 2-socket systems do -- that's still the sweet spot. There's no question that today's single-socket quad-core Intels are great desktop machines -- I just bought a bunch for the new startup that I'm working for (which is building a consumer website.) But for our back-end cluster, our desire for low power consumption and big memory leads us to lean towards Opterons, and if AMD can get their Barcelona launch actually out the door, I think there'll still be a clear advantage for AMD on 2-socket and bigger boards, for most cluster applications. A reseller showed me a new 4-socket quad-core Intel platform; it takes 128 gigs of memory... but you should see the heatsink on the northbridge, and the ducted cooling needed by the fbdimms. And it will cost an arm and a leg. And I shudder to think how bad the STREAM and OpenMP benchmarks will be. -- greg _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
