Rack mounted systems.

[Walter B. Ligon III]

--------

There is a company that sells a case that will put 3 nodes in 1U.  That is
the most dense I have seen.  Of course, you have to buy from them (including
their mainboard, I think) and I have doubts about cooling in those things.

We're building 264 nodes (528 cpus) using 2U cases.  A "standard" rack is 42U. 
There is no wasted space, but you need to think about network switches, UPSs, 
console management hubs, etc. which will take more space.  I think we're
planning on 16 racks.

You can also get 1/2 depth cases that let you populate the back of the rack.
I'm not sure I'd want to deal the resulting rat's nest.  Might be a way to
get the auxilliary stuff out the way though.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

Walt

> 
> Am attempting to estimate machine room floor space for a fairly
> large Beowulf cluster (~500 processors.) Here are my questions
> re: loading these into racks: (assume Pentium processors)
> 
> - what is the minimum width of a 2-way node? (1U, 2U?)
> 
> - how many nodes can reasonably be put in a standard 
>   10" rack? i.e. can the rack be fully loaded or is
>   some spacing required?
> 
> Thanks.
> paul /
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Dr. Walter B. Ligon III
Associate Professor
ECE Department
Clemson University