| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
gfabry
Joined: 21 May 2008
Posts: 1
|
 Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 7:26 pm Post subject: How Do I Go About Making a CPU Cluster? |
 |
|
Well, I found an online store where you can get relatively cheap ($0.95) 600Mhz Intel Celeron (370 Socket) processors... so I thought "If I wired those together, I can get myself a pretty fast computer...". I looked it up and read about CPU Clusters, Beowolf clusters, but the information I found wasn't very helpful or it was outdated. I was wondering, if I were to buy 20 or 30 of these CPUs, would I be able to easily wire them in parallel to create a fast computer? Or is it a pipe dream?
I've had soldering, computer building, electronics experience before BTW. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Qwerty
Joined: 20 May 2005
Posts: 3141
Location: Germany
|
| Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 4:02 am Post subject: Re: How Do I Go About Making a CPU Cluster? |
|
|
| gfabry wrote: | Well, I found an online store where you can get relatively cheap ($0.95) 600Mhz Intel Celeron (370 Socket) processors... so I thought "If I wired those together, I can get myself a pretty fast computer...". I looked it up and read about CPU Clusters, Beowolf clusters, but the information I found wasn't very helpful or it was outdated. I was wondering, if I were to buy 20 or 30 of these CPUs, would I be able to easily wire them in parallel to create a fast computer? Or is it a pipe dream?
I've had soldering, computer building, electronics experience before BTW. |
To build a computer cluster you need to get a couple of ordinary computers and connect them via fast LAN (1 or 10 GBit). If you want to have a cluster with 30 celerons you will also need 30 motherboards, 30 PSUs, 30 HDDs and so on.
Unfortunately you will not be able to use common software on a cluster. Neither Windows nor games will run on it! Only special versions of Linux, large databases and different scientific applications can utilize the power of a cluster. There is another problem - the computational power of a cluster doesn't scale well. If you connect 10 PCs with 600 MHz CPUs together you won't get a 6000 MHz computer. Depending on used application the real power will be only 20% - 60% of this value.
IMHO it makes no sense to use 600 MHz celerons. If you use 30 celerons in the cluster you will get not much power - a single Intel QuadCore with 3 GHz will beat the cluster easily!
Here is a Wikipedia article about clusters - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cluster
Last edited by Qwerty on Thu May 22, 2008 5:30 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
D.8080
Joined: 03 Apr 2006
Posts: 1474
Location: Italy
|
| Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 5:01 am Post subject: |
|
|
The idea sounds grandious!
Too bad it isn't that performing, Qwerty reshaped your dream... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Cobracon
Joined: 28 Aug 2007
Posts: 216
Location: Roosterpoot, MS; US of A (Obama country!)
|
| Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 6:54 am Post subject: |
|
|
_________________
"Have you scanned the RAM timings for Operator's Headspace?? Too much real estate between the audio collectors will block the connection which allows proper operation of your computer."_Cobra
 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Qwerty
Joined: 20 May 2005
Posts: 3141
Location: Germany
|
| Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 10:01 am Post subject: |
|
|
The idea of connecting many computers to a cluster is a very promising one. As you certainly know the modern 2- or 4-core CPUs are small clusters.
They have just the same problems as the large traditional clusters - application compatibility, poor performance scalability and low communication bandwidth between CPU cores. There is only one big difference - a QuadCore CPU is a "cluster-on-a-chip" and the traditional cluster is a "cluster-in-a-room" 
Because the number of cores on a chip is rising (a 6 - core Intel CPU will be introduced in 2Q 2008) and the bandwith of LANs is increasing (100 GBit Ethernet LAN is in development) the difference between a cluster and a many-core CPU is decreasing.
I think in 5 - 10 years you won't notice the difference whether your software is running on your brand new local 64-core CPU or on a server rack with 64 PCs (if the rack is in another room of course  ). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Wizzard1
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
Posts: 930
Location: Boston MA USA
|
| Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 10:34 am Post subject: |
|
|
Occasionally, on Ebay, there are sales of 16/30/some number of small form factor motherboards or computers- There are also distros of Linux, and applications, which can split mathmeatical and Java apps across a network to a cluster. Might be something like what you're looking to do!
But in reality, you're better off with a single fast CPU than multiple smaller slower CPUs, unless you really know what you're doing. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Windmiller
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
Posts: 1716
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
![[ Hidden ]](https://cdn.cpu-world.com/forum/templates/CPUWorld/images/lang_english/icon_email.gif "[ Hidden ]"){kind=icon}