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Portable 8-iMac Linux Cluster Real World Debut
Snocone writes: "Here is the first real world application (researching drug effects on the brain, ironically enough) of Terra Soft's 8-way Black Lab Linux cluster.
Even if they didn't deserve mad props for standing up proudly against the Lintel hegemony, there's just something fundamentally hilarious about selling an $18K supercomputer made out of iMacs." So - eight Imacs. You could get the different colors, and call it a Lifesavers Candy Cluster?
the miicro.com site is, apparently, being slashdotted. Here is the press release at Terrasoft.com
Subject says it all, for once.
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It's a
-- Danny Vermin
IBM makes some very nice SMP PPC, and Linux will run on some of them. So the answer is kind of..
.sig: Now legally binding!
Uhh.
They actually do.
If you read apples page about the G4, it used to have (this is PRE dual g4 powermacs, but G4 none the less) a lot of articles there about using it in science. Like how it has the lowest Gigaflop per dollar or something IIRC.
take a look:
http://www.apple.com/powermac/
And the iMacs are developed for the cluster because they are small, netbootable, and boards can have a G4 upgrade put on them.
-Pfhor
For the last time...there is nothing in the GPL which requires a GPL'd product to be free. It just requires that you make the source available to people who purchase the product, and that you allow them to do whatever they want with such source. If you're so damn concerned about it, cough up the $389 and make "Tangent Z's clustering linux-o-rama" and put it up on a public ftp site or something.
"That's Tron. He fights for the Users."
So, I could possibly see how MOT has some registers that are sort of doing the Intel thing... You know, the Intel Net Pipeline. The one that makes the Internet faster. Just like the Motorola DSM registers?
And it will take a LONG time before I'm convinced that your Apple iFruit can replace my Ultra Enterprise Server. I don't care if it's running BSD underneath, Apple has a LONG way to go before I'm convinced I should use an Apple product anywhere in an environment that is anywhere near mission-critical or secure.
Companies have to earn their respect. Apple has not yet made a server OS. It will take a long time of them having a good server OS for me to be convinced that I should use it.
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
I've heard gcc doesn't produce very well optimized code for the PPC architecture.
If this is true, what advantages does buying eight whole iMacs and throwing the cases away give over building the same thing out of an array of single board PIII computers?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Those new cubes are proof enough that you can cram lots of PowerPC hardware into a really tiny space (without lots of fans, either). Furthermore, Altivec should make the G4 absolutely CRUSH any G3 in mathematical computation, even the ones with a meg of cache.
Of course, if I was building a cluster of anyhing, I'd want to use Athlon or Alpha -- EV6 r0x0rz...
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"A witty saying proves nothing" - Voltaire
If apple needed to guard the G4 with tanks, then this thing must explain why the star wars missile system is being revamped - to protect it!
Drag n' Drop DVD Recommendations
It looks like they are only using the logic boards in these things not the whole damn system, so yer not going to see different gummy colors. Yeah, I know that was probably a flip remark, but it seems as though most /. editors don't bother reading these links anymore either.
Has anyone looked inside the iMacs? Not much there except the monitor. You could probably fit 4 of the logic boards into the space of one G4 server.
blah
clif
Well, this particular cluster is using 100mb ethernet. The reason is that the iMac isn't exactly easy to upgrade with something like gigabit or myrinet. We do work on G4 clusters that use gigabit or myrinet for a very high performance and low latency interconnect fabric.
Regards,
Dan Burcaw
dburcaw@terraplex.com
Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.
Naw.... we should call this cluster iSkittles. iSkittles: Process the Rainbow.
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Intelligence is definitely a recessive trait.
yer.. cause all that competition from different vendors driving the price down just pisses me off.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Is it just me or is an iMac not the most logical computer to cluster. What a waist of 7 monitors, 7 CD drives, 7 flopp... ok no floppies but still.
If you hook 8 Macs into a token ring, would you consider that a Fruit Loop?
"..don't you eat that yellow snow."
If these guys had just waited until the iMac's come out with G4's, they're job would have been much easier. The G4 contains six new registers separated by semaphores that control locking of memory locations across a network (IP v6 compatible). These aren't available under the Mac OS 9, because it doesn't use the memory protection available from a UNIX-like OS. Mac OS X will support this, hwoever, along with a new release of WebObjects, positioning Apple as a leading e-commerce platform provider with Sun and IBM. Apparently, many users of the Mac OS have been pestering Motorola to add this into hardware. I predict it is unlikely to be in Linux in the next few months. With the current lack of multi-pipeline support in the kernel, it will take several man-months of effort to work this properly. Several architectures have been proposed, I favor a regimented memory access (RMA) style.
what in the HELL is an IRQ, ANYWAY?!
Right... {yawn} The tired old argument about how much easier it is for the layman to deal with Mac hardware. Great marketing hype for people like my old man. Now go ask him why he can't use his Mac printer with his Mac.
Umm... constantly?
Yeah, aesthetics are so important in computing. You really like that marketing stuff, huh?
If you look up and to the left of your 'n' key, you'll find an 's' key. I hope it's not broken? Open your eyen and use the right lettern.
by many... what? marketing drones? geese? fruit flies?
You might try a version of reality that isn't so tainted with Mac marketing hype, it might help you provide better input in a technical forum such as this. Or maybe not... As the song says, "There's always a joker, that's the rule, as foolish as he can be..."
No Laughing Allowed!
"The new iMac cluster is infinitely expandable..."
"Because there's always room for JELL-O!"
Where's Bill Cosby when you need him?
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, from the experiences I ahve had recently, g4's are mean mean mean scientific machines. We have quite a few floating around the national lab where I work. The PC/MAC team is going head to head with the Unix team on Seti@Home. I was holding the top spot with my dual p3's chewing up chunks. Then in comes these G4's..they are averaging about 5 hours per processor on a block. That's really quite good. Of course, we countered with the PA-RISC machine that could do 24 an hour ;)
But the fact of the matter is that their performance is prompting us to look at g4 clusters as a scientific computing solution. Go figure. I wonder if Apple will buy into it..their machines as scientific boxes ;)
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --