Having the chance to work with an IRIX version, I can tell you that you can actually do TCP over Numa at the speed of 3.2Gpbs so it's more than 3 times.
They also have a faster interconnection that allows 6.4 Gpbs so you can copy the equivalent of a whole CD rom per SECOND(!).
I wish my ISP could do that, unfortunately, my PC is decades behind that kind of performance...
..that some people DON'T CARE ABOUT THE PRICE! All they want is serious kickass performance. They want the answer NOW!
This is what sets SGI apart, their performance...
Even if the Dodge Viper is a fast car, how come you don't see it racing against F1's...? It's simply because don't care about the price. They don't mind spending $20k on a friggin' steering wheel...!
SGI = best throughput/bandwidth, Database = Need throughput, Oracle != IRIX but Oracle = Linux.
Obviously, SGI is in need of money. They know how to do the right thing with performance so this will open some doors that were closed before...
Also, you can bring machines closer to the admins w/o IRIX experience. Some people are scared to learn, you know...
Now remember, SGI offers up to 128 cpu in single system image. This is serious compute power and no one else can offer it. You're not talking beowolf, clusters, etc. It's *1* machine.
SGI's tweaking allows them to achieve very close to linear scalability.
Just remember when a few months/years ago, Linux wasn't scaling well over 8 cpu's. SGI has a 128 CPU solution already. I have to admit that these guys made a VERY good job!
Because if you take a kid fresh out of the college, he can run Linux. IRIX? hum not so sure.
Another reason? Oracle. You will see some kick ass performance and that'll bring big sales for SGI I'm quite certain! Oracle doesn't run on IRIX although IRIX on MIPS hardware has one of the best performance ratio in the supercomputing area.
It's not about the cost. Everyone knows very well that the cost of the OS isn't really helping sales. It's how familliar people are. Which one would you buy? an IBM box running AIX or Linux? I bet you don't want to learn AIX and will probably choose Linux if you can get pretty much the same performance..!
SGI has been coding for many years (3-4 at least). It released many code in the public domain such as the (defunct) Apache acceleration program which was simply amazing. Don't forget XFS, one of the best filesystem out there. I feel that for marketing reason, they will not release any "performance tuning" code anymore and keep it for themselve. That's good for customers but not so good for us. In a certain way, such code is probably proprietary to their architecture.
You can buy this machine and run redhat out of the box. But if you want to kick some ass, you need to install all the tweaked out drivers and modifications SGI made in the kernel. This is the stuff that makes the difference (the secret sauce).
Recent benchmarks showed that SGI's customs modifications gave it almost 2x on throughput performance (versus IBM).
Don't forget that some people don't care how much it cost, they only care about real performance. A linux cluster just won't cut it...
Corect me if I'm wrong but I always thought SGI was using light in it's interconnectors between machines? That's how they can achieve amazing throughput.
A large grocery company in Quebec has been doing online grocery for more than 6 years now with a pretty good success. You can order pretty much anything you want and they will deliver it to you. All you need to do is to spend 35$ and pay a 3$ delivery fee, which is quite reasonable.
No capital venture or.com's burning cash here...
They rather use the power of their vast network, so there's most likely a store pretty close to your place. Your order is then dispatched to the closest store and processed. Very efficient, very fast...
Bill the bitch. She didn't say a word so she expects a bill from you. Of course, she won't call you to send her check. Do you think people do that? She will wait and expect you to either forget or drop the bill. Then she will laugh. Not only they saved money by laying you off, now they can use your services for free... What a deal! She will get promoted and you won't have a single dollar.
The whole idea behind Hubble is to place it beyond the atmosphere where you get all the "distortions".
Now if you place a spy satellite up there and look down, you get the opposite problem. You have to go through all that "crap" and have all kinds of image tools.
That's the whole idea behind drones, they fly pretty low and get REALLY good images. You can probably tell what kind of cigarette people are smoking.
Well, there are some alternatives, but that's the whole problem: they are alternatives...
It's like if you had to carry that extra cable/battery thing for your cell phone 95% of the time. It gets annoying.
I don't mind at home/office/car since I can use the AC adaptor (which I have to carry all the time). But when I go downtown for a walk and decide to use it, I can't do more than a couple of hours and that's the problem.
Oh well, I hope the battery will be available for 5500 users...?
I agree that top executives don't need such a thing. All they care about is their agenda and phone book. Palm is cool for them.
For a unix admin like myself, the palm pretty much sucks. Good thing I actually won it or I would've kicked myself for buying such a thing.
The zaurus rocks and here's why...
on
Zaurus 5600 Announced
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I own a Palm Vx and a Z5500 and I haven't touched my palm since then. Looking back at my palm, I wonder "how could it ever be sold??". The palm is sooo limited in functionality compared to the Zaurus. First of all, you get a shell, which is (to me) worth every penny of the Zaurus. It allows you to do whatever you want and tweak everything in the OS. OpenZaurus allows you to go a step beyond by installing what you want and freeing up some valuable memory.
The *only* disadvantage I found so far is battery life. With a wireless CF card, you can use it for about 1 - 1.5 hours. Now that's bad. Of course, new 802.11b CF cards (type 2) are out and use less power, but I don't feel like shelling another 80$.
Even if you are not a Linux guru, I recommended it for it's basic features. It runs Opera, you can get any kind of instant message, basic office-type tools, etc. It kicks Palm's ass big time.
The slide in keyboard is just amazing. I have no words to express my happiness:)
Now like someone said earlier, try running apache and mysql on your palm...Now that's customization!
If you want better words to compare Palm and Zaurus, let's say that the Palm is a nice agenda with very limited computer functions while the Zaurus is in fact a small computer with nice agenda features. That's how I see it. It's kinda like comparing a typewriter with a computer.
SGI's rack is "seen" as a single computer where as that rack will be seen as a multitude of machines (cluster).
And Linux won't scale very well with that many CPU's. I heard stories where 16 cpu's is the fair scaling limit.
Besides, you can "hooks" those SGI racks and build up to 1024 CPU's and it will still be seen as a single computer. Only 1 kernel will be running, not 512 kernels like on Linux (*if* it works!!)
Having the chance to work with a similar machine, I can tell you that the disk arrays (in general) will generate much more heat that the CPU bricks. The CPU bricks a very well ventilated. Hard disks RAIDS (in general) are not so well ventilated and will generate a lot of heat. Maybe they tolerate higher temperature, I don't know.. But it's good though, it keeps a part of the server room a bit warmer when you get too cold:)
We also have a Linux rack and this will get pretty hot too. We had to move the Linux rack next to the A/C blower. I can't really say about other vendors but SGI is doing a good job at cooling their stuff.
It's amazing that a company that is trying to survive can acomplish such an amazing breakthrough. SGI is on the edge, yet it can push their technology far beyond the competition.
I wonder what SGI could do if it had the same number of employees Sun or IBM has.
I think that, once again, they prove that they can provide the community with cool and kick ass products.
Congrats SGI, this is just amazing... Other companies should follow.
Slashdot Mirror
Having the chance to work with an IRIX version, I can tell you that you can actually do TCP over Numa at the speed of 3.2Gpbs so it's more than 3 times.
They also have a faster interconnection that allows 6.4 Gpbs so you can copy the equivalent of a whole CD rom per SECOND(!).
I wish my ISP could do that, unfortunately, my PC is decades behind that kind of performance...
Here
Maybe someone can describe the bricks?
Windows can scale to what? 32 cpu's?
Are they any x86 solutions that offer 32 cpu's systems anyway?
..that some people DON'T CARE ABOUT THE PRICE! All they want is serious kickass performance. They want the answer NOW!
This is what sets SGI apart, their performance...
Even if the Dodge Viper is a fast car, how come you don't see it racing against F1's...? It's simply because don't care about the price. They don't mind spending $20k on a friggin' steering wheel...!
SGI = best throughput/bandwidth, Database = Need throughput, Oracle != IRIX but Oracle = Linux.
Obviously, SGI is in need of money. They know how to do the right thing with performance so this will open some doors that were closed before...
Also, you can bring machines closer to the admins w/o IRIX experience. Some people are scared to learn, you know...
Now remember, SGI offers up to 128 cpu in single system image. This is serious compute power and no one else can offer it. You're not talking beowolf, clusters, etc. It's *1* machine.
SGI's tweaking allows them to achieve very close to linear scalability.
Just remember when a few months/years ago, Linux wasn't scaling well over 8 cpu's. SGI has a 128 CPU solution already. I have to admit that these guys made a VERY good job!
Because if you take a kid fresh out of the college, he can run Linux. IRIX? hum not so sure.
Another reason? Oracle. You will see some kick ass performance and that'll bring big sales for SGI I'm quite certain! Oracle doesn't run on IRIX although IRIX on MIPS hardware has one of the best performance ratio in the supercomputing area.
It's not about the cost. Everyone knows very well that the cost of the OS isn't really helping sales. It's how familliar people are. Which one would you buy? an IBM box running AIX or Linux? I bet you don't want to learn AIX and will probably choose Linux if you can get pretty much the same performance..!
SGI has been coding for many years (3-4 at least). It released many code in the public domain such as the (defunct) Apache acceleration program which was simply amazing. Don't forget XFS, one of the best filesystem out there. I feel that for marketing reason, they will not release any "performance tuning" code anymore and keep it for themselve. That's good for customers but not so good for us. In a certain way, such code is probably proprietary to their architecture.
You can buy this machine and run redhat out of the box. But if you want to kick some ass, you need to install all the tweaked out drivers and modifications SGI made in the kernel. This is the stuff that makes the difference (the secret sauce).
Recent benchmarks showed that SGI's customs modifications gave it almost 2x on throughput performance (versus IBM).
Don't forget that some people don't care how much it cost, they only care about real performance. A linux cluster just won't cut it...
Is this some kind of paid advertisement? Like the hour long bestbuy ad on techtv ?
Corect me if I'm wrong but I always thought SGI was using light in it's interconnectors between machines? That's how they can achieve amazing throughput.
A large grocery company in Quebec has been doing online grocery for more than 6 years now with a pretty good success. You can order pretty much anything you want and they will deliver it to you. All you need to do is to spend 35$ and pay a 3$ delivery fee, which is quite reasonable.
.com's burning cash here...
No capital venture or
They rather use the power of their vast network, so there's most likely a store pretty close to your place. Your order is then dispatched to the closest store and processed. Very efficient, very fast...
Bill the bitch. She didn't say a word so she expects a bill from you. Of course, she won't call you to send her check. Do you think people do that? She will wait and expect you to either forget or drop the bill. Then she will laugh. Not only they saved money by laying you off, now they can use your services for free... What a deal! She will get promoted and you won't have a single dollar.
The whole idea behind Hubble is to place it beyond the atmosphere where you get all the "distortions".
Now if you place a spy satellite up there and look down, you get the opposite problem. You have to go through all that "crap" and have all kinds of image tools.
That's the whole idea behind drones, they fly pretty low and get REALLY good images. You can probably tell what kind of cigarette people are smoking.
You can sell your body or dope and probably make much more. Then again, some people have morals...
Well, there are some alternatives, but that's the whole problem: they are alternatives...
It's like if you had to carry that extra cable/battery thing for your cell phone 95% of the time. It gets annoying.
I don't mind at home/office/car since I can use the AC adaptor (which I have to carry all the time). But when I go downtown for a walk and decide to use it, I can't do more than a couple of hours and that's the problem.
Oh well, I hope the battery will be available for 5500 users...?
I agree that top executives don't need such a thing. All they care about is their agenda and phone book. Palm is cool for them.
For a unix admin like myself, the palm pretty much sucks. Good thing I actually won it or I would've kicked myself for buying such a thing.
I own a Palm Vx and a Z5500 and I haven't touched my palm since then. Looking back at my palm, I wonder "how could it ever be sold??". The palm is sooo limited in functionality compared to the Zaurus. First of all, you get a shell, which is (to me) worth every penny of the Zaurus. It allows you to do whatever you want and tweak everything in the OS. OpenZaurus allows you to go a step beyond by installing what you want and freeing up some valuable memory.
:)
The *only* disadvantage I found so far is battery life. With a wireless CF card, you can use it for about 1 - 1.5 hours. Now that's bad. Of course, new 802.11b CF cards (type 2) are out and use less power, but I don't feel like shelling another 80$.
Even if you are not a Linux guru, I recommended it for it's basic features. It runs Opera, you can get any kind of instant message, basic office-type tools, etc. It kicks Palm's ass big time.
The slide in keyboard is just amazing. I have no words to express my happiness
Now like someone said earlier, try running apache and mysql on your palm...Now that's customization!
If you want better words to compare Palm and Zaurus, let's say that the Palm is a nice agenda with very limited computer functions while the Zaurus is in fact a small computer with nice agenda features. That's how I see it. It's kinda like comparing a typewriter with a computer.
I know that Exxon has some machines on their rigs.
SGI's rack is "seen" as a single computer where as that rack will be seen as a multitude of machines (cluster).
And Linux won't scale very well with that many CPU's. I heard stories where 16 cpu's is the fair scaling limit.
Besides, you can "hooks" those SGI racks and build up to 1024 CPU's and it will still be seen as a single computer. Only 1 kernel will be running, not 512 kernels like on Linux (*if* it works!!)
MIPS processors are used in a multitude of products. Not just SGI... I remember seeing MIPS based handhelds some time ago.
:)
In fact, SGI doesn't really "own" MIPS anymore, it's an independent company. You can buy their CPU's and start your own company if you wish
I bet you guys are using dual P3's 1U servers?
Those can get REALLY hot.
You can also put them in an airplane. Like I mentioned in a previous post, these machines are extremely decent on the heat side.
Having the chance to work with a similar machine, I can tell you that the disk arrays (in general) will generate much more heat that the CPU bricks. The CPU bricks a very well ventilated. Hard disks RAIDS (in general) are not so well ventilated and will generate a lot of heat. Maybe they tolerate higher temperature, I don't know.. But it's good though, it keeps a part of the server room a bit warmer when you get too cold :)
We also have a Linux rack and this will get pretty hot too. We had to move the Linux rack next to the A/C blower. I can't really say about other vendors but SGI is doing a good job at cooling their stuff.
It's amazing that a company that is trying to survive can acomplish such an amazing breakthrough. SGI is on the edge, yet it can push their technology far beyond the competition.
I wonder what SGI could do if it had the same number of employees Sun or IBM has.
I think that, once again, they prove that they can provide the community with cool and kick ass products.
Congrats SGI, this is just amazing... Other companies should follow.