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Xgrid Clustering Software and Demo

Posted by michael on from the please-mod-down-beowulf-jokes-kthx dept.

no_demons writes "Along with a selection of other goodies, Apple also unveiled their Xgrid clustering technology from their advanced computation group today. Xgrid can turn a number of networked Macs into a supercomputer, detects nodes automagically via Rendezvous, and can run in or out of a screensaver mode. You can download a technology demo (including a BLAST test app) here."

8 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Will it work on legacy machines? by ActionPlant · · Score: 5, Funny

    It'll be interesting to see if I can make this work with the stacks of old LC520s in my garage. I've been wanting to cluster them for a while. If Xgrid will work on those, Mac just saved me a ton of work. Not that I wasn't going to have fun with it....

    Damon,

    --
    http://actionPlant.com
    1. Re:Will it work on legacy machines? by Squid · · Score: 5, Informative

      OSX requires:
      - PCI
      - Open Firmware
      - a PPC 603 or 604 or later
      - oodles of RAM (64 minimum).

      Running it on a legacy Mac - that is, anything older than a Power Mac 9500 - would involve somehow getting around these. You'd have to:
      - write an Open Firmware bios for the machine and trick it into booting via it
      - write drivers for the machine's onboard video so that it LOOKS to the OS like a PCI card behind a bridge chip (repeat for sound, network, etc)
      - get a 603 or later (OS X 10.2 needs a G3 or later), some of the upgrades for 68K machines could only go to a 601
      - provide for 64 or 128MB RAM on a machine whose motherboard is limited to 36. Oh, and endure the sluggishness of 72-pin RAM.

      OS X is not OS 9 and it is not Red Hat.

      --
      ~ radiographite: art by john shepard
    2. Re:Will it work on legacy machines? by TCM · · Score: 5, Funny

      What has Slashdot come to? Suggesting throwing cash at a problem that can be solved over "many weekends of hard labor"?

      Next you suggest to pay for an operating system instead of writing your own?

      Tss..

      --
      Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
  2. Re:Sounds good, but... by rampant+mac · · Score: 5, Funny
    "But for me, the model I want is a broker model. I want to sell my processor time to a broker who will resell it on a day to day basis to whoever is the highest bidder. E-bay of grid computing, ya know. I don't want to pick projects, download clients, etc. I just want to pariticipate (i.e. make money) from whoever is willing to pay the most at any given moment.

    And when I feel like it, I'll volunteer x% to non-commericial stuff like SETI@home."

    Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the 21st century pimp.

    "What do we get for 10 teraflops?"

    "Anyting you want!"

    "Anything?"

    "Anyting!"

    --
    I like big butts and I cannot lie.
  3. Re:Why limit this.. by sydney094 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It isn't inherently limited to Macs... however, the only computers that they have written the client for is Mac 10.2.8 or better.

    (From the FAQ)

    Q: Can I use Xgrid with other UNIX-based computers?

    A: The short answer is no.

    The long answer is that Xgrid uses an XML property list protocol built on top of BEEP for all of its inter-computer communication and coordination, and because these protocols are open, it is possible a client, agent, or controller could be written to run on other UNIX-based computers and interoperate with Xgrid. However, no such programs have been written.

    --
    "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research." - Einstein
  4. Hardly a Supercomputer: Cluster computing 101 by deadline · · Score: 5, Informative
    There are only certain problems that work well on LAN clusters. Those that have a lot of independent jobs (like BLAST) and those that require a small amount of communication like rendering.

    Read ClusterWorld and you can figure this out yourself.

    --
    HPC for Primates. Read Cluster Monkey
  5. 90nm G5s by sergeantmudd · · Score: 5, Informative

    What's more important is what it's clustering, 90 nanometer G5s. Apple and IBM are the first company to bring 90 nm processors to the market. Xserve White Paper

  6. Re:Why limit this.. by laird · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "However when you can pick up Dell or Sun machines cheaper and more powerful than Xserve cluster nodes, it's more tempting to me to put a little effort into getting each one up & running as a node and enjoy the benefit of more power and a little effort, than simplicity and less power."

    This might make sense except that Dell and Sun servers are slower and more expensive than Apple's. Unless you're talking about buying used servers on eBay or something, I suppose. But if you want scientific supercomputing floating point number crunching, the G5 is amazingly good...

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    Enable 3D printed prosthetics!