dont throw in the towel just for that. try and see if you can get research funding through the university you are attending<br><br>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 7/1/08, <b class="gmail_sendername">Mark Kosmowski</b> <<a href="mailto:mark.kosmowski@gmail.com">mark.kosmowski@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">And I forgot to change the subject. Apologies.<br><br>On 7/1/08, Mark Kosmowski <<a href="mailto:mark.kosmowski@gmail.com">mark.kosmowski@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> At some point there a cost-benefit analysis needs to be performed. If<br>> my cluster at peak usage only uses 4 Gb RAM per CPU (I live in<br>> single-core land still and do not yet differentiate between CPU and<br>
> core) and my nodes all have 16 Gb per CPU then I am wasting RAM<br>> resources and would be better off buying new machines and physically<br>> transferring the RAM to and from them or running more jobs each<br>
> distributed across fewer CPUs. Or saving on my electricity bill and<br>> powering down some nodes.<br>><br>> As heretical as this last sounds, I'm tempted to throw in the towel on<br>> my PhD studies because I can no longer afford the power to run my<br>
> three node cluster at home. Energy costs may end up being the straw<br>> that breaks this camel's back.<br>><br>> Mark E. Kosmowski<br>><br>> > From: "Jon Aquilina" <<a href="mailto:eagles051387@gmail.com">eagles051387@gmail.com</a>><br>
><br>> ><br>> > not sure if this applies to all kinds of senarios that clusters are used in<br>> > but isnt the more ram you have the better?<br>> ><br>> > On 6/30/08, Vincent Diepeveen <<a href="mailto:diep@xs4all.nl">diep@xs4all.nl</a>> wrote:<br>
> > ><br>> > > Toon,<br>> > ><br>> > > Can you drop a line on how important RAM is for weather forecasting in<br>> > > latest type of calculations you're performing?<br>> > ><br>
> > > Thanks,<br>> > > Vincent<br>> > ><br>> > ><br>> > > On Jun 30, 2008, at 8:20 PM, Toon Moene wrote:<br>> > ><br>> > > Jim Lux wrote:<br>> > >><br>
> > >> Yep. And for good reason. Even a big DoD job is still tiny in Nvidia's<br>> > >>> scale of operations. We face this all the time with NASA work.<br>> > >>> Semiconductor manufacturers have no real reason to produce special purpose<br>
> > >>> or customized versions of their products for space use, because they can<br>> > >>> sell all they can make to the consumer market. More than once, I've had a<br>> > >>> phone call along the lines of this:<br>
> > >>> "Jim: I'm interested in your new ABC321 part."<br>> > >>> "Rep: Great. I'll just send the NDA over and we can talk about it."<br>> > >>> "Jim: Great, you have my email and my fax # is..."<br>
> > >>> "Rep: By the way, what sort of volume are you going to be using?"<br>> > >>> "Jim: Oh, 10-12.."<br>> > >>> "Rep: thousand per week, excellent..."<br>
> > >>> "Jim: No, a dozen pieces, total, lifetime buy, or at best maybe every<br>> > >>> year."<br>> > >>> "Rep: Oh...<dial tone>"<br>> > >>> {Well, to be fair, it's not that bad, they don't hang up on you..<br>
> > >>><br>> > >><br>> > >> Since about a year, it's been clear to me that weather forecasting (i.e.,<br>> > >> running a more or less sophisticated atmospheric model to provide weather<br>
> > >> predictions) is going to be "mainstream" in the sense that every business<br>> > >> that needs such forecasts for its operations can simply run them in-house.<br>> > >><br>
> > >> Case in point: I bought a $1100 HP box (the obvious target group being<br>> > >> teenage downloaders) which performs the HIRLAM limited area model *on the<br>> > >> grid that we used until October 2006* in December last year.<br>
> > >><br>> > >> It's about twice as slow as our then-operational 50-CPU Sun Fire 15K.<br>> > >><br>> > >> I wonder what effect this will have on CPU developments ...<br>
> > >><br>> > >> --<br>> > >> Toon Moene - e-mail: <a href="mailto:toon@moene.indiv.nluug.nl">toon@moene.indiv.nluug.nl</a> - phone: +31 346 214290<br>> > >> Saturnushof 14, 3738 XG Maartensdijk, The Netherlands<br>
> > >> At home: <a href="http://moene.indiv.nluug.nl/~toon/">http://moene.indiv.nluug.nl/~toon/</a><br>> > >> Progress of GNU Fortran: <a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2008-01/msg00009.html">http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2008-01/msg00009.html</a><br>
> > >><br>> > ><br>> > > _______________________________________________<br>> > > Beowulf mailing list, <a href="mailto:Beowulf@beowulf.org">Beowulf@beowulf.org</a><br>> > > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit<br>
> > > <a href="http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf">http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf</a><br>> > ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> > --<br>> > Jonathan Aquilina<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Jonathan Aquilina
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