[Beowulf] choosing a high-speed interconnect

[Jeffrey B. Layton]

Chris Sideroff wrote:

>I'm sure posing this may raise more questions than answer but which
>high-speed interconnect would offer the best 'bang for the buck':
>
>1) myrinet
>2) quardics qsnet
>3) mellanox infiniband
>  
>

   Just as a data point, I've recently seen IB prices as low as $600 a port
including HBA's, cables, software, etc.

   To also had a little fuel to the fire, if you are using your own codes,
try a different MPI. There are a couple of MPI's with really good
performance over GigE.
   Another option is to look at a RDMA NIC. For example, Ammasso
has a low-latency GigE NIC. I don't know prices, but be sure to do
some testing on these NICs vs. IB and Myrinet. Then you can make
a better decision.

Good Luck!

Jeff