[Beowulf] how green is that?!?

[richard.walsh at comcast.net]

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Mark Hahn <hahn at mcmaster.ca> 

> http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=312084283 
> 
> very amusing and effective stunt for SiCortex! though I wonder 
> whether the total carbon footprint winds up being bigger than when 
> using conventional power (ie, that the human+foodchain system is 
> itself fairly high-carbon...) 
> 
Right.  Maybe running of a bunch of photo-voltaics would have been more hydrocarbon friendly (if not market grabbing), but the machine is more peak-efficient (there is little benchmark data out there) per watt than Blue Gene by my calculation, more balanced than Opteron (not than a Cray), and has a very cool custom interconnect.  It takes some baby steps in the direction of "many-core" with more and simpler cores than the current generation of x86-64 chips.  If it is possible for custom machines to regain traction in this space, I think SiCortex's systems are the best bet.
Regards,
rbw

--

"Making predictions is hard, especially about the future." 

Niels Bohr 

-- 

Richard Walsh 
Thrashing River Consulting-- 
5605 Alameda St. 
Shoreview, MN 55126 

Phone #: 612-382-4620
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