[Beowulf] [jak@uiuc.edu: [Xgrid] Re: megaFlopsper Dollar? real world requirements]

[John Hearns]

On Tue, 2005-05-17 at 10:51 +0200, Eugen Leitl wrote:

> > Don't forget that the highest data rate available is FedEx'ing a box of
> > diskdrives.
> 
>   Although there is a grand history of comments like this, (I believe
>   the original quote was "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a
>   station wagon full of tapes") it often isn't actually true.  Sure, it
>   wins "door-to-door", but having a box of hard drives next to my
>   computer does not make the data usable.  For a valid look you need to
>   look at memory-to-memory transfer.  In other words, include the time
>   write the hard drives, disconnect them, mail them, reconnect them,
>   and read all the data.  This always kills most tape arguments, and
>   has slowly been eroding the hard drive argument.

For the digital screening of one of the Star Wars films in London,
an entire RAID array was freighted in.
This was commonly used in digital cinema setups.

At the National Film Theatre in London there is now a Digital Testbed
http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/dtb/about.html
I know that Sohonet supply a high bandwidth link to it - much more than
that I don't know.