[plug] decent INTEL SMP boxes in Perth?

[Nick Bannon]

On Wed, Oct 13, 1999 at 04:29:31PM +0800, David Griffiths wrote:
[...]
> At the moment I'm looking at creating a cluster of around 4 dual cpu
> systems (8 cpus, >= 4,000 MHz total) running linux and farming our multiple
> model runs out across the 4 boxes using shared disk space for the data and
> binaries. (Does anyone know how efficiently a dual cpu SMP linux system
> load balances two cpu intensive tasks?).

"It all depends", but it does look like you've examined what you need
already. Two CPU intensive jobs will run very well, basically at twice
the performance of a single CPU.

If you're running lots of interdependent threads or processes, shuffling
data back and forth between themselves, calling the kernel a lot, doing
I/O, etc, _that's_ when you have slowdowns. That's when you want fewer
CPUs with more grunt each, that's when you want fast memory, fast buses,
fast networks, that's when you want a well tweaked OS with low latencies
and finely grained locking mechanisms (which Linux 2.2 is, compared to
Linux 2.0 and some of the Other Choices (tm)).

[...]
> Will have to look at alpha price/performance figures too. But the appeal of
> running on commodity hardware is big.

Some other things you might consider (and quite possibly reject <grin> ) ;

	* Non "name brand" PC suppliers. If you're resigned to buying
commodity PC parts, a name brand like Dell isn't actually going to get
you much. You can save thousands by getting a box put together (with
decent parts that you can specify, naturally) by any of dozens of Perth
box shifters. Spend the savings on an extra couple of boxes in case the
first ones die and get a speed boost in the meantime. It's a compromise,
but that's what PC hardware is all about.

	* Athlon (K7) CPUs. Solidly trounce any Intel CPU on performance,
reasonably priced, SMP capable, but for the moment you might be stuck with
one per box - I haven't actually seen any multi CPU boards for them yet.

	* Macs. Load yourself up with a set of G3 or G4 machines and
LinuxPPC. Try your benchmark first, of course, but it could be very
cost effective.

Nick.

-- 
  Nick Bannon  | "I made this letter longer than usual because
nick at it.net.au | I lack the time to make it shorter." - Pascal