Cluster Computing with iMacs and Power Macintoshes
D.A. Grove, P.D. Coddington, K.A. Hawick and F.A. Vaughan
Archived: 8 March 1999
Published in Proc. of Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems (PDCS'99), Fort Lauderdale, August 1999.
Abstract
We investigate the use of a cluster of networked Apple iMac or Power Macintosh personal computers as a compute server for sequential and parallel programs, and describe our experiences with a cluster of iMacs used primarily for an undergraduate teaching laboratory. We explore the support for cluster computing offered by the various operating systems available for the
Macintosh: MacOS 8; the upcoming MacOS X which offers Unix functionality; and the recently available LinuxPPC for the Macintosh. We present sequential and parallel benchmark performance results for an iMac cluster, a Beowulf-style Intel Pentium PC cluster, and a network of DEC Alpha workstations. We compare the performance and price/performance of these systems, and discuss some of the less quantifiable issues such as software installation, ease of use, and system maintenance.
> Tolkein has so many subtle depths and hiddenmeanings,
Yes,
> and thats before you even start to problematize (look it up on google) the text.Was Gandalf a homosexual? Was the hobbit an African-american ?
And no...
Read "Tolkien: Man and Myth". It's an excellent account of how Tolkien's life influenced Middle Earth and his literature. It also does a good (sometimes hilarious) job of exposing the ludicrousness of claims such as sexuality, etc, etc in The Silmarilion and LOTR.
> There is just so much to take in.
There is certainly A LOT behind Tolkien's works, but PLEASE, let's not try and denigrade his works by trying to shoehorn modern agendas into them.
Middle Earth/The Silmarilion/The Hobbit/LOTR was essentially written as a fairy story (read Tolkien's essay "On Fiary Stories") but is also largely centred on Tolkien's Catholocism and his beliefs about the nature of the universe: good/evil, the nature of God, what happens at the end of the world, etc...
Uh, we already had close to a terabit connection (http://telstra.com.au/bigpond/direct/aboutnet.htm ) so this is just a drop in the bandwidth ocean; the advantage of this is the low latency of the link.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.dhpc.adelaide.edu.au/reports/065/abs-06 5.html
DHPC Technical Report DHPC-065
Cluster Computing with iMacs and Power Macintoshes
D.A. Grove, P.D. Coddington, K.A. Hawick and F.A. Vaughan
Archived: 8 March 1999
Published in Proc. of Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems (PDCS'99), Fort Lauderdale, August 1999.
Abstract
We investigate the use of a cluster of networked Apple iMac or Power Macintosh personal computers as a compute server for sequential and parallel programs, and describe our experiences with a cluster of iMacs used primarily for an undergraduate teaching laboratory. We explore the support for cluster computing offered by the various operating systems available for the
Macintosh: MacOS 8; the upcoming MacOS X which offers Unix functionality; and the recently available LinuxPPC for the Macintosh. We present sequential and parallel benchmark performance results for an iMac cluster, a Beowulf-style Intel Pentium PC cluster, and a network of DEC Alpha workstations. We compare the performance and price/performance of these systems, and discuss some of the less quantifiable issues such as software installation, ease of use, and system maintenance.
PDF version and PostScript version available...
> Tolkein has so many subtle depths and hiddenmeanings,
Yes,
> and thats before you even start to problematize (look it up on google) the text.Was Gandalf a homosexual? Was the hobbit an African-american ?
And no...
Read "Tolkien: Man and Myth". It's an excellent account of how Tolkien's life influenced Middle Earth and his literature. It also does a good (sometimes hilarious) job of exposing the ludicrousness of claims such as sexuality, etc, etc in The Silmarilion and LOTR.
> There is just so much to take in.
There is certainly A LOT behind Tolkien's works, but PLEASE, let's not try and denigrade his works by trying to shoehorn modern agendas into them.
Middle Earth/The Silmarilion/The Hobbit/LOTR was essentially written as a fairy story (read Tolkien's essay "On Fiary Stories") but is also largely centred on Tolkien's Catholocism and his beliefs about the nature of the universe: good/evil, the nature of God, what happens at the end of the world, etc...
Uh, we already had close to a terabit connection (http://telstra.com.au/bigpond/direct/aboutnet.htm ) so this is just a drop in the bandwidth ocean; the advantage of this is the low latency of the link.
They're going by satellite link. Probably the way out of Sydney was congested.