<div>Thanks Doug,</div>
<div> I was just noting that since you went to the detail of includig the cost of CAT 5 cables, and the individual node cases, that it seemed logical that the thing that holds the 8 nodes together should possibly be an off the shelf, regularly available item and bundled into the total cost. But I understand your point of the 8 nodes being able to stand alone, or possibly sit on existing shelving.
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<div>I believe that at some point of increase, whether it's density, Gflops, or increased budget by 3-4X, one might find that moving to rack or blade units is cost-effective and offers increased manageability over stand alone single proc. servers.
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<div>Thanks for the benchmark links, I'll check them out.<br><br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 5/9/05, <b class="gmail_sendername">Douglas Eadline - ClusterWorld Magazine</b> <<a href="mailto:deadline@clusterworld.com">deadline@clusterworld.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">On Thu, 5 May 2005, Ted Matsumura wrote:<br><br>> I've noted that the orionmulti web site specifies 230 Gflops peak, 110
<br>> sustained, ~48% of peak with Linpack which works out to ~$909 / Gflop ?<br>> The Clusterworld value box with 8 Sempron 2500s specifies a peak Gflops by<br>> measuring CPU Ghz x 2 (1 - FADD, 1 FMUL), and comes out with a rating of 52%
<br>> of peak using HPL @ ~ $140/Gflop (sustained?)<br><br>It is hard to compare. I don't know what sustained or peak means in the<br>context of their tests. There is the actual number (which I assume is<br>sustained) then the theoretical peak (which I assume is peak).
<br><br>And our cost/Gflop does not take into consideration the construction<br>cost. In my opinion when reporting these type of numbers, there<br>should be two categories "DIY/self assembled" and "turn-key". Clearly
<br>Kronos is DIY system and will always have an advantage of a<br>turnkey system.<br><br><br>> So what would the orionmulti measure out with HPL? What would the<br>> Clusterworld value box measure out with Linpack?
<br><br>Other benchmarks are here (including some NAS runs):<br><br><a href="http://www.clusterworld.com/kronos/bps-logs/">http://www.clusterworld.com/kronos/bps-logs/</a><br><br><br>> Another line item spec I don't get is rocketcalc's (
<br>> <a href="http://www.rocketcalc.com/saturn_he.pdf">http://www.rocketcalc.com/saturn_he.pdf</a> )"Max Average Load" ?? What does<br>> this mean?? How do I replicate "Max Average Load" on other systems??
<br>> I'm curious if one couldn't slightly up the budget for the clusterworld box<br>> to use higher speed procs or maybe dual procs per node and see some<br>> interesting value with regards to low $$/Gflop?? Also, the clusterworld box
<br>> doesn't include the cost of the "found" utility rack, but does include the<br>> cost of the plastic node boxes. What's up with that??<br><br>This was explained in the article. We assumed that shelving was optional
<br>because others my wish to just put the cluster on existing shelves or<br>table top (or with enough Velcro strips and wire ties build a standalone<br>cube!)<br><br>Doug<br>><br><br>----------------------------------------------------------------
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