Supercomputers

There is a bit more to a supercomputer than the processors and lots of RAM. The network fabric makes a big difference too, and when you have an array of different types of processors, it makes things somewhat inefficient. You can't just patch together a network with however many nodes you can come up with. I think this flashmob supercomputer goes to show that putting together a supercomputer does take time and planning...

Of course, I can see a market for computing power in the form of grid computing, where you use these ordinary desktops when they're not being used, as part of a local grid, which would be somewhat like distributed computing, but better, because the machines would be better connected. My University is going to try something like that. link

Of course, my University has just spent quite a bit on a cray-dell supercomputer, and I think we either have, or are planning to have an IBM Power cluster... We will have an xServe cluster, though, but it'll only have 8 - 16 nodes at first, and it'll grow with donations, and people buying computing time on the cluster, so it might be successful, but nowhere near the power of Virginia Tech's supercomputer...

It would be cool to see this done at WWDC or MacWorld. Get everyone to run Pooch. Show the world how easy it is.

In the future (distant ) it would be neat to see that computers individually aren't much more powerful than today's computer, but that laptops have fast enough wireless connections to share processing power internet service so that the whole world becomes one huge and completely interconnected network.

can anyone help?

Im just wanting some direction regarding making a small supercomputer/renderfarm using a G5 and lots of cheaper PC's running linux as opposed to lots of G5's!

anyone any ideas?

stoid said:

In the future (distant ) it would be neat to see that computers individually aren't much more powerful than today's computer, but that laptops have fast enough wireless connections to share processing power internet service so that the whole world becomes one huge and completely interconnected network.

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That would be great.

How about instead of having to pay for an internet connection, you just allow your computer become a part of a distributed network. Your internet company would sell the distributed computing to companies and you wouldn't have to pay for your access!

Dippo said:

That would be great.

How about instead of having to pay for an internet connection, you just allow your computer become a part of a distributed network. Your internet company would sell the distributed computing to companies and you wouldn't have to pay for your access!

Click to expand...

I think in the near future homes are going to be built with computers as a part of the "appliances" package that are built in. Then as you choose wether you want Sears Kenmore or GE or Amana you can specify M$ or Apple for the home base comp. and instead of just opening the garage door with the dashboard remote in the car, the whole house comes alive. (like so many I see already on TV) I just wish I could stay around longer and see what the next 50 or so years brings.
Like having CPUs developed on the molecular level so hypothetically a 20ghz CPU could fit on the head of a pin and be embedded in your skin so you become a symbiotic walking computer, complete with eye implants for the visual input and speakers (implanted in the ears) for audio, and who knows where else it could go....

Dippo said:

How about instead of having to pay for an internet connection, you just allow your computer become a part of a distributed network. Your internet company would sell the distributed computing to companies and you wouldn't have to pay for your access!

Click to expand...

I forget which company (Juno?), but somebody already tried that. As far as I know it was a flop (heh), since people weren't too keen on having their processor chewed up by mysterious network jobs, but it was an interesting idea, and it might still be around.

It's interesting to note that the makeshift supercomputer those folks put together ended up being about as fast as 20 high-end G5s. Not that it'd be easy to get that kind of performance out of the Macs in the real world, but it gives you an idea of just how fast they are.

And give Apple a little longer on XGrid, and maybe that Macworld supercomputer will be even easier to set up than Pooch!