Re: Rationale: No New OS.

Dan Clemmensen (Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com)
Sun, 22 Nov 1998 19:49:12 -0500

my inner geek wrote:
>
> Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com (Dan Clemmensen):
>
> URL re: Linux clusters
>
> http://www.globec.com.au/LDP/HOWTO/Parallel-Processing-HOWTO-3.html
>
> -------------------
> geek@ifeden.com

Interesting, but fairly basic. I should tell you a little about myself. I've been a data communications programmer for over 25 years. In 1985, I was one of the founders of the company I still work for. We've been building peer-processor datacomms swithces since I designed the architecture for our first one in 1985. I do try to keep up with this stuff. Please beleive me when I say that the networking isn't particularly hard. The problem is in task assignment and task migration.

Note that when the computers are all in the same room, there are cheaper ways to build a Beowulf than by using ether-switches. In particular, if the comuters are arranged in a grid, each computer can use two 100BaseT cards instead of one. In this arrangement each computer can act as a crosspoint for its row and column, switching on average only as many packets as it originates or terminates. This gives you massive, incrementally expandble bandwidth for approximately $50/node.