Hi Jim, I think the whole idea about that Pi Cluster was not to build a HPC machine but more to demonstrate it can be done and also have students a tinker with it. The Pi are quite small, so you can do that in a class, without worring you get deaf or the AC will not cope with the heat ;-)
It is a nice toy, good for a few things but I doubt it will replace a 'real' number crunching cluster. My 2 dimes before bedtime. 8-) Jörg On Freitag 14 Dezember 2012 you wrote: > What's interesting about this is system is that it is a good illustration > that there's a lot more expense and hassle than selecting the motherboard. > > While the RPI might only be $35, you also have to buy a SD card ($10-12) > power supplies, cables, boxes or mounting hardware, not to mention a > network switch, etc. When you are looking at rock bottom price points, > small things like the cost of the plug strip you plug it all into can be a > significant fraction of the total. If you're making a cluster out of > $1000-2000 nodes in a rack, you can ignore things like the network cable > or power cord cost, because they're in the $1-2 range, but if your > computer costs $30, then a $1 network cable is a 3% increase in price. > > All of that might actually equal or exceed the cost of the processor. > > You might be better off getting a stack of inexpensive netbooks or low end > PCs.. A bit of casual googling shows that there are quite a few netbooks > out there in the under $100 category (odd brands, it is true) (heck, I > found one place offering refurbished netbooks for $45 each.. ) Move up to > the $150-200 price range and there's literally hundreds of major brand > units available. > > Jim Lux > > -----Original Message----- > From: beowulf-boun...@beowulf.org [mailto:beowulf-boun...@beowulf.org] On > Behalf Of Jörg Saßmannshausen Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2012 3:58 PM > To: beowulf@beowulf.org > Subject: Re: [Beowulf] Help: Raspberry Pi Cluster > > Hi Eric, > > already been done in Southampton University: > > http://www.southampton.ac.uk/mediacentre/features/raspberry_pi_supercompute > r.shtml > > ;-) > > Note: that is not the cluster called Iridis (also located there) :D > > Jörg > > On Donnerstag 13 Dezember 2012 Lee Eric wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I'm wondering if it's possible to create a small HPC by using > > Raspberry Pi computers. It's only a draft idea comes to my mind. So > > any issues w/ this idea? > > > > Thanks. > > > > Eric > > -- > ************************************************************* > Jörg Saßmannshausen > University College London > Department of Chemistry > Gordon Street > London > WC1H 0AJ > > email: j.sassmannshau...@ucl.ac.uk > web: http://sassy.formativ.net > > Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. > See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html > > _______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing To > change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit > http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf -- ************************************************************* Jörg Saßmannshausen University College London Department of Chemistry Gordon Street London WC1H 0AJ email: j.sassmannshau...@ucl.ac.uk web: http://sassy.formativ.net Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
