Virginia Supercomputer: 1100 Apple Dual G5

[asian1]

Hello
From News.com.com (Sept. 2, 2003):
Virginia Tech University and Apple plan to build
a supercomputer using 1100 Apple Dual G5 board.
Is it possible to do similar thing (at lower cost)
using Pegasos 3 G5 or Amiga......?

News

[JoannaK]

Well.. not yet, but BBRV has annouced their will to do 970 (g5) based
system early next year. We'll see what happens. If it'll be available
and will be more economical than Apples comparable systems, then it
has nice chance.

I have no idea what plans Eyetech has on high end products...


(article)
http://news.com.com/2100-1008_3-5070403.html

[asian1]

Hello
They use Infiniband 10 Gbps switch from Mellanox.
I don't understand why they choose high speed
Infiniband, because the speed of G5 bus is only
900 Megabyte/second. Infiniband bandwidth is
10 Gigabit/second (approx. 1.25 Gigabyte/second).
Why the speed of external Network is faster
than internal bus between processors and RAM?
Is this efficient? Can the G5 use the bandwidth
efficiently?
According to IBM, the node of their POWER CLUSTER
are multicore CPU, but they had to use only 1 core
for every node because of HW design & efficiency.
Is there any similar problem with Dual G5 on
every node?

Mellanox

BTW: the company that offer Cluster based on
MELLANOX is called TOPSPIN. The company that
create AmigaOne is called TOPSHINE. Are the above
companies related / belong to the same group?

[iamaboringperson]

@asian1

You must remember that the 10Gbps is the max. theoretical speed, data will probably travel much slower than that. Remember also that with ethernet type technology, in any one segment there may be many nodes(not just 2) wanting to transmit at the same time, of course when there are many machines they all want to transmitt.

[mikeymike]

there may be many nodes(not just 2) wanting to transmit at the same time, of course when there are many machines they all want to transmitt.

Especially if they're running Windows networking :-)

[iamaboringperson]

mikeymike wrote:

there may be many nodes(not just 2) wanting to transmit at the same time, of course when there are many machines they all want to transmitt.

Especially if they're running Windows networking :-)

Broadcasts galore!

[asian1]

>Infiniband & Ethernet

Hello
IIRC Infiniband is different from 10 Gbps Ethernet.
The system IS NOT based on IP and is not designed
for LAN. Infiniband is designed by IBM, Intel, HP
as PCI BUS replacement, not LAN.
I don't think there is a collision problem on
BUS, especially with switching equipment.
There is a linux sourceforge project for Infiniband.
Is it possible to use the driver on Linux for
PowerPC?
Infiniband Trade Association
Supercomputer
Linux

[techiebk]

@asian1
  Are you sure about the bandwidth on the PPC 970? The number you quote sounds awfully low. For example, a 100Mhz, 64bit FSB should run at approx 800MB/s. The slowest G5 board runs at 800Mhz and 64bits. Shouldn't it run closer to 3.2GB/s?
--edit--
I just realized that I goofed. G5 motherboards use a 400MHz, 64bit dual channel bus, similiar to the newest P4 systems. They just advertise it as an 800MHz FSB. Sorry about that.

[asian1]

Hello
On top 500 Supercomputer list, the new system
will be in top 200. Several major financial
groups are missing from the list.
Citibank and Bank of America are listed at 350s
and 400s.

If someone can persuade the groups to build
similar machines as Virginia Tech, but based
on cheaper Pegasos 3 or Amiga.......:
1. Is this possible?
2. What about the OS and application?
3. Can Genesi or Eyetech handle the massive
orders?
4. Is Apple board more reliable and have less
bugs than Pegasos 3 / Amiga......?

Top 500

[mikeymike]

If someone can persuade the groups to build
similar machines as Virginia Tech, but based
on cheaper Pegasos 3 or Amiga.......:
1. Is this possible?
2. What about the OS and application?
3. Can Genesi or Eyetech handle the massive
orders?
4. Is Apple board more reliable and have less
bugs than Pegasos 3 / Amiga......?

No, no, divide by 0 error and what?

:-)