disadvantages of a linux cluster

[Guy Coates]

>Anyone exploring high FLOPS/watt clusters yet?

We currently have a 768 node cluster RLX cluster in production. We were
low on power capacity and physical space in our machine room so it made
sense to pay the premium for the high density. When we did our evaluation
we ended up with a test metric of BLASTs/Watt/Pound.

24 blades (800Mhz PIII, 2x40Gig drive, 3x100Mb ethernet per blade) fit
into 3U and consume ~840 watts. Compaq/HP, IBM and Fujitsu also offer high
density/low power blade solutions as well with various GigE/myrinet
networking options should you require them.

What solution you end up with depends on how much extra you want to spend
on hardware in order to save on space and power.

Regards,
Guy Coates

-- 
Guy Coates,  Informatics System Group
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1223 834244 ex 7199