[Beowulf] Re: Purdue Supercomputer

[Jim Lux]

Quoting Prentice Bisbal <prentice at ias.edu>, on Mon 12 May 2008  
06:18:49 AM PDT:

> Jim Lux wrote:
>
>> Actually, you can order cables already pre numbered and labelled.  Why
>> burn expensive cluster assembler time when you can pay someone
>> (potentially offshore) to do it cheaper.
>
> Because that would hurt the US economy, and the labels would probably be
> made out of lead. ;-)
>

And, as others have pointed out, there's all those expendable students  
who are actually paying you (or at least, the institution) for the  
thrill of sticking labels on cables.

And, it *is* almost an embarrassingly parallel task to do the  
labeling, so many hands could make light and quick work.

Jim


For those inquring about prelabeled cable sources.. the place I bought  
them in the past has gone out of business (hmm.. maybe it wasn't such  
a good deal..)

However, I note that Siemon, a big mfr has them:
http://www.siemon.com/us/company/press_releases/07-01-25-trunking-cable.asp

But, in practice, there's several ways they do this.  The most common  
is that they have one of those machines that inkjet prints onto heat  
shrink tubing, that is slid onto the cable and shrunk, either before  
or after the connectors are attached.

Individual serial numbers on cables is very, very common in the RF  
cable business, so it's not an unusual technology. On the other hand,  
for that, one is dealing with cables that cost more than $50-100 each.  
  You just have to ask your cable supplier (and probably not go to the  
"Box o'1000 cables for $99" surplus vendors).