very high bandwidth, low latency manner?

[Tim Wilcox]

Craig Tierney wrote:

>I talked to a guy at SC2002 from Quadrics and he said
>that list pricing on a Quadrics network was about $3500
>per node when you are in the 100s of nodes and up.  
>The price includes the cards, cables, switches,
>etc.  This doesn't include any sort of discount that you
>might get.  Myrinet is about $2000 for an equivelent 
>network at list price.   Dolphin/SCI falls around $2245 list 
>per node (if the system is > 144 nodes and you have to get
>the 3d card).
>
A couple of corrections to this, the 2D card lists at $1695 per node and 
is suitable for up to 256 nodes.  No one has built one that size and it 
is correct that is it is recommended to use 3D (lists $2245/node) for 
larger than 144 nodes.  This is due to a potential saturation of a ring 
for certain communication patterns, it is not always the case.  By going 
to 3D you shorten the rings and avoid this up to 1728 nodes.  Anyone 
interested in building one?

>
>
>I heard that Quadrics had a customer that just had to have
>an Intel/Quadrics system so either they or he was working
>on porting the drivers.   The web page says they support
>Linux and Tru64.  You could probably get the hardware without
>going through Compaq, but Compaq is most likely buying up
>most of the supply.
>
>Craig
>
The Quadrics looks interesting, but I haven't the resources to afford 
the pleasure of playing with it.  The major issue with it is pricing and 
lack of nodes out there using it pricing.

Myricom and Dolphin tend to come to about the same price per node, chalk 
it up to friendly competition.

Regards,
Tim Wilcox