What the Heck is this Thing?

[tjwett]

did i fall asleep and miss something? this pic is located on the XServe page at Apple's site under the title "Cluster Configuration". i don't recognize it at all. can someone fill me in?

 

[Tom800]

er...

...it's an airplane hanger, isn't it?

 

[MacUser1]

xserve cluster configuration

yeah, this has been around since the xserve was updated to 1.33 GHz. it's a node that is used in a cluster of xserves.

 

[Wardofsky]

They are x-serve clusters.

 

[encro]

It's a cluster configuration. It's missing the CDRW drive and an ethernet port but has an extra processor instead for the same price.

It's used for Rendering Farms and the like. You would buy 1 standard xServe and then link up more cluster nodes to process information faster for example with Shake or XCode.

 

[tjwett]

thanks guys, i can't believe i missed this thing. if it has no ethernet, what does it use to connect to other machines, say in a render environment? is this where Fiber Channel comes in? thanks again.

 

[patrick0brien]

Originally posted by tjwett
is this where Fiber Channel comes in? thanks again.

-tjwett

Ayep! What good is a render farm is your nodes' connections are slow?

 

[tjwett]

kewl. i want one.

 

[encro]

I didn't mean it had no ethernet port. It has 1 only instead of the 2 on the standard xServe. But yes you would definately link via a 2GB Fibre Channel.