[Beowulf] Gen - 1 Clusters

[Fringe Dweller]

I think Mark's right upon further consideration. The current generation 
DC's are essentially 2xSC's in the same packaging, more so Intel's offering.

Moving slightly OT...

I read recently where a journo asked Intel "So what will dual core do 
your your average desktop, corporate user?" The reply included the 
standard waffle, vague mention of power users, multimedia etc etc. The 
real gem was that it would allow users to run real time virus scanning 
and firewall protection without slowing the "work" applications!

With that kind of approach to dual core I'm not holding my breath for 
"smarter" DC designs from Intel anytime soon!

Like many others I suspect, my hopes turn to AMD that they will continue 
to see performance as a differentiator (please forgive the marketing 
term). The Opteron, hyper transport, PCI express combo seems like 
quality performance design. For that I think performance Beowulf = AMD 
at the moment.

Remember back in the middle ages (1980's) when Compaq owned the top tier 
of PCs? They pretty much ignored the middle and bottom teirs, happy to 
be the top dog. Alas, they weren't making enough dollars from the top 
end - it hurt. They reentered the middle tier and the bank was much happier.

In a bizzare kind of way, IMHO, I think Intel has forgotten the 
"middle". They do very well with the commodity, they have the summit 
with Itanium (for what it's worth). But there seems to be a weakness at 
the snow line. Will the bottom and the top be enough to keep them alive 
and happy?

Just my A$0.02 :)

Cheers
Steve

> 
> On Fri, May 06, 2005 at 06:36:23PM -0400, Mark Hahn wrote: