Re: Hardware for a cluster

[Craig Tierney <ctierney@hpti.com>]

On Tue, Sep 18, 2001 at 04:14:52PM +0200, J . A . Magallon wrote:
> Hi everyone.
> 
> I ask for the expert's opinion.
> 
> We are going to build a cluster. Some questions:
> 
> - Dual mobos or single ones ? Some people here say that with dual systems
> you fill half the space. Is it really an advantage to use dual processor 
> boards ?

It depends on your codes.  At the Forecast Systems Lab we chose to
go with Dual Alpha nodes for our upgrade.  It gave us more bang for the
buck when considering the savings of not having to buy twice as many
cases, power supplies, cables, racks, and most importantly, myrinet
cards and switches.  Some of the codes are able to use as much as 90%
of the second CPU.  However, there are some codes that are only able to
use 70% of the second CPU.

It really depends on your codes.

> 
> - Is PentiumIV so much better that a PIII ? Will nowadays gcc (3.0.1) generate
> code for PIV ?

Look into the Intel Compilers for Linux (assuming that is the OS you want).
If you only have to by copies where you compile it isn't that expensive
~ $500US per copy.

Craig


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