[Beowulf] China Wrests Supercomputer Title From U.S.

[Alan Louis Scheinine]

With regard to networks, a near-future fork in the road between Beowulf
clusters versus supercomputers may be the intelligence concerning global
memory added to the network interface chip for upcoming models of supercomputers.
An example is the SGI Ultraviolet series, but also, other supercomputer
vendors will have something not too dissimilar ... without being too specific.
Moreover, execution paradigms for petascale and exascale computing need that
kind of intelligent network interface.  My point is that the key question
about the interconnect may not be the bandwidth, but rather, how much support
it provides for global addressing and process migration.

These declarative statements should be seen as questions.  I welcome comments
from better informed members of the mailing list concerning intelligent
interconnection interfaces for modestly-priced Beowulf clusters.

Regards,
Alan

-- 

  Alan Scheinine
  200 Georgann Dr., Apt. E6
  Vicksburg, MS  39180

  Email: alscheinine at tuffmail.us
  Mobile phone: 225 288 4176

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ascheinine