Slashdot Mirror
Cray CTO Says Cray Computers Are Great
Jan Stafford writes "Linux clusters can not offer the same price-performance as supercomputers, according to Paul Terry, chief technology officer of Burnaby, British Columbia-based Cray Canada. In this interview, Terry explains that assertion and describes Cray's new Linux-based XD1 system, which will be priced competitively with other types of high-end Linux clusters."
The thing is makers of big supercomputers are scared of clustering technology. Look at google. A large cluster, and if one of the machines dies, you don't worry about it. Every once in a while you go and replace those that died. If only a small portion die, you haven't seriously impacted your production. However, if your supercomputer goes down... well, your screwed. 1000 machines are more reliable then 1 big machine.
Dude, the makers of "big supercomputers" invented clustering. I don't think they're afraid of it.
There are tasks that a cluster of Linux shitboxen will do well, and tasks where the cluster will not hold up so well against a real supercomputer. Google is an example of a perfect application for networked Linux servers. If you're simulating cloud physics one molecule at a time, though, you are a lot better off using the right tool for the job instead of 1,024 wrong ones.
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
FUD = Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Provide examples in his statements of any of those three?
P.S. You are so l33t for using TT.
In other news, a Porsche performs better than a Ford Focus. Nevermind the 'slight' price difference.
But even then, there are legitimate needs for supercomputers. A traditional PC-based server solution will address probably 99% of all problems. An inexpensive cluster will get you 99.9%. But there's that remaining 0.1%, and that's the target audience for whom Cray and similar companies exist.
The fact that PCs can be used almost unmodified to create supercomputers and high-speed clusters is remarkable, and says tremendously good things about the flexibility and power of the architecture as a whole. But there are just places it can't go, not yet. For example, you know how you never get 99% efficiency with 100 megabit ethernet? You're lucky to get 70% with gigabit, and 50% is a pretty common figure. PCI-X, at least at the speeds we're talking about here, is so rare now that it's hardly cheaper than custom supercomputer-style solutions - effectively because it is a custom supercomputer-style solution. I don't think we'll ever see common systems, even midrange servers, with more than one 16X PCI-X slot.
I really think this is what Cray mean here. Not that Linux-based clusters have no use, but that there is still a significant market for which they are suboptimal. And, in all probability, will always remain suboptimal. However fast PCs get, however popular PCI-X and similar high-speed buses become, supercomputers will just get faster to match... and computational problems will get harder to go along with them. I just don't see the need for supercomputers, at some level, ever going away.
(I hope people find my comment useful in some way. I elected to post it rather than mod down the idiot posting flamebait about Macs in reply to you. And here's hoping people don't interpret this as karma whoring, since usually if you say "This will get modded down" it doesn't. But... oh, hell. I don't even know which Slashdot rule of thumb applies to my post at this point.)
for him to suggest an HPC is always a more economic, or even better option than a cluster of cheap x86 boxes is demonstrably false
It would be if he'd said it, so it's a good thing he didn't. He even commented that there are applications (emabarassingly parallel algorithms) that clusters do very well at. And Google is a perfect example of that.
It's a but depressing to watch everyone jump on Cray here despite having no clue about the key differences between supercomputers and clusters are. All this cheerleading for clusters in various posts here illustrates how thoughtless some of these posts are. Why the heck should you care if someone makes a supercomputer or a cluster. Both clusters and supercomputers lose value fast over time.
Yes clusters are good for some stuff but we should be rooting for Cray if they're creating interesting products that fill a need, and that's exactly what they do.
It is a fact that supercomputers have an architecture that clusters cannot compete with for some classes of problem. Get over it, live with it and enjoy the fact that supercomputers are running Linux too.
It's pretty darned cool that Cray survived until now and that they still have a market for large single image systems.