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Date:      Tue, 11 May 1999 13:27:41 +0200
From:      "Samer, Michael, IN" <Michael.Samer@Ingolstadt.BERTRANDT.com>
To:        'Guy Helmer' <ghelmer@scl.ameslab.gov>
Cc:        "FreeBSD Questions (E-Mail)" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   AW: Cluster?!
Message-ID:  <DE7D44483D7ED211BF3300A0C93B227748B561@in_sv_off>

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Hey,
our app consists of ~100 splitts of matrixes with 1mil*1mil fields. A =
lot of
fields depend on others and most time is used for calculation (a 250MHz =
SGI
Octane R12000 appr. 1-3weeks) and there is a SMP Version of PamCrash
available, so I guess it's scaleable. I've an ALR Evolution 6x with =
6*PPro's
at my home, but it's depends on the efficency of the program =
(Photoshop) to
run good or not. And it doesn't have an eficency more than 40% than one
(same calc. than your's). It seems that a cluster would be of better =
(and
cheaper!) value, than MultiP machines. But I guess the OS is very
significant for the performance.=20
78% is really great! Invites to do a rendering of highest quality and =
2048
resolution for a next Starwars movie Part 1 1/2....=20
I have already thought about gigbit Clustering (switch! with 32GBit
Backplane).  Driver are still a problem, but for that money it would =
surely
be possibe to let a drive be created... or so?! But great to have a =
card
already natively supported. Baynetwork/NetGear is not broadly known in
Germany and so difficult to get. To get a Foundry Netw. Hub was also =
not so
easily , but surely possibly. I guess I will try an F-Ether Switch =
first and
then a gigbit Switch for testing. We will see!

Thanks for your hint/test!
Greetings
Sam

> -----Urspr=FCngliche Nachricht-----
> Von:	Guy Helmer [SMTP:ghelmer@scl.ameslab.gov]
> Gesendet am:	Dienstag, 11. Mai 1999 04:02
> An:	rick hamell
> Cc:	Samer, Michael, IN; FreeBSD Questions (E-Mail)
> Betreff:	Re: Cluster?!
>=20
> On Mon, 10 May 1999, rick hamell wrote:
>=20
> > > Does anyone have experience (on universities or research) with =
Cluster
> and
> > > the efficency?=20
>=20
> Efficiency depends on the distributed application :-)  If your app =
doesn't
> require extremely low latency or extremely high bandwidth for its
> interprocessor communication, then it ought to run well.  A sample =
app
> that I use for benchmarking runs at 78% efficiency (e.g., 0.78 * 64 * =
the
> speed of the app on a single PPro 200) on 64 PPro-200 processors =
connected
> with Fast Ethernet (although the PC's are running Linux).  Some apps =
run
> very well on clusters, and other apps run poorly.
>=20
> > 	I don't know how much Alphas cost versus regular PCs, but you may=20
> > want to take a look at Beowulf. I've heard several reports of =
people=20
> > running it under FreeBSD, including an unconfirmed inside sourse at
> NASA.=20
> > There are several commercial clustering programs also, though I do =
not=20
> > know the name of them off the top of my head.
>=20
> A basic cluster is just a group of PC's connected with a fast =
network.
> Since Bill Paul recently added a driver for the NetGear GE620 ($330!)
> Gigabit Ethernet card to FreeBSD, one can build the cluster around a
> really fast network for a moderate amount of money.
>=20
> > 	Anyways if you run several fast PC's PII-400s or so with FreeBSD=20
> > in a clusterd environment you should see quite a bit of =
performance, and
>=20
> > a large cost savings. The best part (IMHO) of using the PCs, you =
can
> swap=20
> > new ones in and out easily, and be cost-effective at doing so.
>=20
> Or, you can buy a cluster of new systems and distribute the old =
systems to
> be used as desktop PC's :-)
>=20
> Guy Helmer, Ph.D. Candidate, Iowa State University Dept. of Computer
> Science=20
> Research Assistant, Ames Laboratory       ---
> ghelmer@scl.ameslab.gov
> Research Assistant, Dept. of Computer Science   ---
> ghelmer@cs.iastate.edu
> http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~ghelmer


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