Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 09:21:12 -0800 From: "Gayn Winters" <gayn.winters@bristolsystems.com> To: "'O. Hartmann'" <ohartman@uni-mainz.de>, <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: High performance computing on FreeBSD Message-ID: <059401c62b41$ba1ed810$6501a8c0@workdog> In-Reply-To: <43E77025.1030803@uni-mainz.de>
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> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org] On Behalf Of O. Hartmann > Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 7:50 AM > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Subject: High performance computing on FreeBSD > > FreeBSd is now since 1996 my companion in scientific computing and > related server systems and also my favorite operating system > for every network stuff, firewalls and desktop systems I ever used. > > Now going ahaed with 64Bit, FreeBSD 6.X has been canceled for desktop > systems due to the lack of a working JAVA in native 64Bit and > especially a working native 64 Bit OpenOffice environment. > > Nevertheless, the experience of our group and especially of mine with > several flavours of Linux, used at our computer center and > its network performance and stability in comparison to FreeBSD's over the > same time period let me tend to ask for a FreeBSD based high > performance computer cluster more than such one founded on a Linux > distribution. But there are some open issues and those need > to be discussed deeper. > > First targets SMP/Node performance. I was very curious about > SCHED_ULE when introduced in FreeBSD 5.X and was said to deliver a performance > boost on SMP boxes. I'm still waiting for that to come true, > every SMP scaling benchmark that has been taken in our computer center > said Linux has the better SMP performance (on the same Opteron hardware, > but I do not have specific details about that, sorry). > Next point is the intercommunication of nodes. Infiniband or with > special Hypertransport coupplings nodes will be able to > communicate very fast. GBit LAN will be the least option, so the question is whether > plans for or ready solutions for the node connections are underway. > The last question refers to Fortran. Well, most of our > scientists still work with Fortran77 or Fortran90/95 and it is hard to bring > them towards C/C++, so the existence of good Fotran compiler will be > essential. GCC 4.1/4.2 isn't standard in FreeBSD 6.X but many of other FreeBSD users > told me they use the port's gcc 4.X very successful. But I > feel better when the new GNU compiler collection will be the standard for > FreeBSD. This may sound weird for some of yours, but I like the ease > of upgrading software in FreeBSD which has reached a very, very high standard over > the past 10 years (and it isn't comparable to jarsh weirdness I > experienced with Linux, Solaris or Windows). So, utilizing standard > ports and the base compiler collection gives a very stable and high > quality platform - in my opinion. > > All right, this above mentioned fundamentals should be the > basis for a small cluster system for numerical research. > I still looking for benchmark tests, pro and contra regarding > BSD/Linux (except the existence of better compiler software for Linux) and the > state of development of high performance node interconnect and > designated driver software. > > Target hardware will be a four or six node Opteron/Athlon64 platform > with dual socket/dual core chips, with 4 or 8 GB local RAM and 200 GB > local SATA disk drives, but main disk array will be RAID > system attached via GBit LAN or, if possible, faster. The big question will remain in > how the nodes should be interconnected and what kind of OS > will be able to handle a specific interconnect (HTX/Infiniband). > > In the case my questions are to unspecific or naiv, please excuse that. > > Oliver It would seem to me that such a project wouldn't be too hard, but it would take time, equipment, and expertise. If your center works with several other like-thinking centers then you could probably pool some combination of money, equipment and donated labor to such a project. If you had these resources lined up, my guess is that might get some additional help from one or more of the technical mailing lists http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/eresources.htm l#ERESOURCES-MAIL For example, hackers, amd64, or ia64. It would be really nice to have FreeBSD be the unquestioned leader in high performance computing. -gayn Bristol Systems Inc. 714/532-6776 www.bristolsystems.com
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