InfiniBand Drivers Released for Xserve G5 Clusters

A user writes, "A company called Small Tree just announced the release of InfiniBand drivers for the Mac, for more supercomputing speed. People have already been making supercomputer clusters for the Mac, including Virginia Tech's third-fastest supercomputer in the world, but InfiniBand is supposed to make the latency drop. A lot. Voltaire also makes some sort of Apple InfiniBand products, though it's not clear whether they make the drivers or hardware."

Comments

Re:Proprietary Crap

[Durindana]

gig-e can do everything infiniband can, WITH tcp, although without the same low latency of infiniband. infiniband just never caught on when it could, it was ahead of its time, but now gigabit ethernet is cheap, and soon ten gigabit ethernet will strip it dry.

[A 747] can do everything [the Joint Strike Fighter] can, although without the same [supersonic speed, air-to-air combat capability] of [the JSF]. [The JSF] just never caught on when it could, it was ahead of its time, but now [747s are] cheap, and soon [the Airbus A300] will strip it dry.

Smart. "Without the low latency of infiniband"? Idiot, what do you think it's for? We're not talking eDonkeying Halo 2 here... ultra-low latency is THE POINT.

Gee, hard decision, although with that price I can see why mac user's would go for it.

Oh wait, you're just a stupid fucking troll. Why don't you go die?

Re:Proprietary Crap

[Kalak]

OK, the "proprietary crap" discussed here is for:
#1 XServes runing (wait for it....) Mac OS X.
#2 Supercomputers

This is not your linux box you're using for a NAT server, or a Beowolf running SETI, so if you're building a super computer or just like drolling over them and thinking of using and expensive interconnect like InfiniBand, you're not looking to compare it to Beowolf over gigabit, and possibly not likely to care about if the drivers are binary only or not.

This article is in no way related to any LKML posting other than it's the same company. This is about OSX Infiniband drivers. RTFA sometime, and you might realize such things.

Welcome to the Apple section. If you're not interested in discussion of things related to Apple, please uncheck the appropriate box in your preferences, and we will all be happier. If you like to run Linux on Apple Hardware, please examine the OS discussed before trolling.

If you want to troll about Infinbands policies effecting Linux, then wait until the LWN article is public ("Alternatively, this item will become freely available on October 21, 2004"), and submit it to /.'s general section (where I would be more than happy to consider it not trolling), and enjoy a livelier discussion there, with a wider, and more appropriate, audience.