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New 8-Node PPC Cluster From Terra Soft
Ben Mesander writes: "Check out the cool looking iDitarod' parallel PPC Linux machine the folks at Terra Soft Solutions just shipped." This yellow rack actually packs a lot of power into a relatively small, mobile enclosure You don't even have to build a beowulf cluster out of this, but it's for deeper pockets than I've got -- as they suggest, though, it sounds like an easy way for a company or school to get a sweet little turnkey PPC cluster.
Cool, a multiprocessor on wheels. Now all it needs is a few servo motors, a grasping arm, and a video camera.
Oh, and a high-intensity particle beam. And *missles*!
The problem is limits on the iMac logic board these systems use, and limits on how much memory PowerPC Linux can properly address. iMac's have limited RAM slots, that have a limited capcity per SIMM, that totals up to 512 MB maxium. PowerPC Linux is very experimental at addressing large amounts of memory (over 768 MB), it requires a special kernel compile in option, and Linux 2.4.
SCSI disks are not an option, as the iMac's logic board doesn't have SCSI. They may have firewire (if they are made from iMac DV's logic boards).
They also have the strenghs and limitations of the iMac board. For one they have video outputs from all of the machines. Concivably, as they are 8 discrete systems, you could have it hooked up to 8 different USB keyboards, mice and VGA montiors, and use it to power a full office. Then again, that would be more expensive, and pain then you would want. The limitations are in the RAM, and the 32-bit G3 proccessor, because these are what the iMac has.
Aha, indeed those PPCs are NOT 64-bit... I had not been paying close-enough attention to the chip models... However, even with 32-bit addressing, you can still hit 1GB/CPU (indeed, you can hit 4GB (- overhead) in each individual address space)...
Clearly 4+ CPUs on a single, fast backplane are faster and justified in being more expensive than a cluster... that is why it is interesting to see *how much* less the cluster remains... The "base price" for 8CPUs is about equal to that of a 4CPU Xeon system... that's still interesting...
We've currently got a diskless workstation cluster of 15 Celeron-based systems that cost us $600/ea (in 1unit rackmount cases), and could put something similar together using P3's w/256MB/CPU for around $17k (before any discounts) - but the PPCs should be faster, in theory... though it will require testing and tuning to see they do for our app...
Anyway, must sleep now...
o/~ we are pissed, we are pissed, we have to resist... o/~ - ec8or