On 01/04/09 18:59 -0700, Ellis Wilson wrote: > > Beyond that, building an entire cluster of that size into a large > shipping container is genius - given access and resources to a crane and > proper machining expertise. But then again if your building a cluster > of that size I suppose the crane, shipping container and a few welders > are not going to be your biggest worries. > > Also interesting is that they use Gigabyte - I haven't been entirely > impressed with them and that is for purely desktop use. Perhaps their > server grade boards are better quality enough to make them worthwhile at > that scale. > > Ellis
We've used Gigabyte on the desktop on and off for years, and have never had any trouble with them; our current and about-to-be-ordered next-generation production boards are from them. For servers OTOH we're now replacing some Intel OEM systems with some Supermicros, but that's partly because those companies sold very nice rack mount enclosures to go with them. One interesting thing to me is the part number on the Gigabyte board, which appears to be GA-9IVDP. This isn't listed on Gigabyte's website (I expect it's a custom design for Google) but they do have a few models with the designation GA-9IVD*; the way Gigabyte's part numbers run these boards would at a minimum use the same processor technology, which happens to be the 800MHz FSB Socket 604. Doing a Google news search, it would appear that the GA-9IVD* motherboards were released in May of 2005 (and they are server-class boards, FWIW) This is consistent with the article's claim that Google has been using this design since 2005; however they also say that they are in the "sixth or seventh generation" of this design, and that they have used both Intel and AMD processors. Thus, I wouldn't be so sure that this is the exact motherboard they are currently stuffing into those shipping containers; more likely it is a copy of one of their earlier builds. --Bob _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
