[Beowulf] Re: newbie's dilemma / Firewire? (Andrew Piskorski)

[Ed Karns]

"Is anyone even using FireWire as a network interconnect for real,  
anywhere?"

Out of the box anyone can simply connect two or more Apple OSX  
machines together via FireWire cabling and update applications and  
transfer files. Rebooting one system makes it appear on other systems  
as an "external drive", then all activity is handled with the  
"Migration Assistant" application ... daisy chaining several systems  
is likewise as easy ... this without any active networking  
application running or installed.

Apple's own cluster scenario, xGrid can use FireWire or EtherNet or  
Internet interchangeably. "Now any individual or workgroup can  
quickly build a low-cost supercomputer. Introducing Xgrid, the first  
distributed computing architecture to be built into a desktop or  
server operating system." ( http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/ 
features/xgrid.html ).

Oracle seems to have at least modest support for FireWire 1394  
networking: http://oss.oracle.com/projects/firewire/ ... and Red Hat  
has some interesting information (with a login): https:// 
www.redhat.com/search/ui.jsp? 
ui_mode=answer&prior_transaction_id=285660&iq_action=4&answer_id=1677721 
8&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fkbase.redhat.com%2Ffaq%2FFAQ_41_5735.shtm

Ed Karns
FireWireStuff.com