> > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert G. Brown >> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 7:22 AM >> To: Gus Correa >> Cc: Beowulf >> Subject: Re: [Beowulf] Re: MS Cray >> >> On Wed, 17 Sep 2008, Gus Correa wrote: >> >> > After I configured it with eight dual-slot quad-core Xeon E5472 >> > (3.0GHz) compute nodes, 2GB/core RAM, IPMI, 12-port DDR IB switch >> > (their smallest), MS Windows installed, with one year standard 9-5 >> > support, and onsite installation, the price was over $82k. >> > It sounds pricey to me, for an 8 node cluster. >> > Storage or viz node choices, 24-port IB to connect to other >> > enclosures, etc, are even more expensive. >> >> Again, excellently well put. This is literally the bottom >> line. What we are really talking about is form factor and >> who does what. People usually are pretty careful with their >> money, at least within their range of knowledge. When bladed >> systems first started coming out -- which was many years ago >> at this point -- I did a bit of an on-list CBA of them and >> concluded that there was a price premium of something like a >> factor of 2 for them, compared to the price of an equivalent >> stack of rackmounted nodes, more like 3 compared to a shelf >> full of tower units. >> I asked "why would anyone pay that"? > <snip of rgb's excellent description of infrastructure issues> >> >> This little exercise in the realities of infrastructure >> planning exposes the fallacy of the "desktop cluster" in MOST >> office environments, including research miniclusters in a lot >> of University settings. There exist spaces -- perhaps big >> labs, with their own dedicated climate control and lots of >> power -- where one could indeed plug right in and run, but >> your typical office or cubicle is not one of them. Those >> same spaces have room for racks, of course, if they have room >> for a high density blade chassis. >> >> If you already have, or commit to building, an infrastructure >> space with rack room, real AC, real power, you have to look >> SERIOUSLY at whether you want to pay the price premium for >> small-form factor solutions. But that premium is a lot >> smaller than it was eight or so years ago, and there ARE >> places with that proverbial broom closet or office that is >> the ONLY place one can put a cluster. For them, even with >> the relatively minor renovations needed to handle 3-4 KW in a >> small space, it might well be worth it. >> > > I suspect that there is some non-negligible demand for these boxes, > notwithstanding the high cost. (esp viewed in terms of keeping the mfr > line for the product going.. Not like either Cray or MS is depending on > these sales to keep the company alive) > > How about as an "executive toy" for the guy in the corner office running > financial models? (I am a Master of the Universe, and I must have my > special data entirely under my control.) > > How about in places where the organizational pain that comes with being in > the "machine room" is high? (All systems in the main computer room shall > be under the cognizance of Senior VicePresident of MachineRoom Operations > Smith. SVP Smith dictates: All systems in the machine room shall be made > available to all users so as to efficiently allocate computational > resources, since my bonus depends on reducing the metric of "idle time > percentage". SVP of IT Security Jones: All shared computational resources > shall use the corporate standard software disk encryption and must run > both McAfee and Symantec AntiVirus in continuous scan mode. SVP of > Network Management Wilson: In order to achieve maximum commonality and > facilitate continuing reuse of computing assets purchased in 1991, all > computers shall provide a connection of 10Base2 Ethernet at 2 Mbps. SVP of > CustomerProprietaryInformationSecurity Brown: All systems in the > machineroom shall use the corporate secure SAN. And so it g! > oes..) > Yupp, that's where we are at and it's why they hire students like me to take care of the dep's isolated server room because most the SVPs think HPC == HA (clustering). > > I think the model that John Vert mentioned, using it as a software > development workstation to try things out before running on the "big iron" > is actually probably a more likely scenario. And for that, you might not > want the full up configuration, just enough to make it a "real" cluster so > you can work out the interprocessor communications issues. > > Jim
If that is the case, just get a multi-core system with Linux. And if you like FluFF (and treasure your auditory capabilities), get a Power Mac. Eric _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
