[Beowulf] Has DDR IB gone the way of the Dodo?

[NiftyOMPI Mitch]

On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 04:07:39PM -0500, Alan Louis Scheinine wrote:
> NiftyOMPI Mitch wrote
>> QDR is interesting... in all likelyhood the
>> QDR game will be optical for any link further away than a single rack.
>> Once IB goes optical there will be a lot of reason to install IB in
> > machine rooms and campus sites that are just out of reach today.
>
> When will IB go optical at a reasonable price?  Perhaps you are not
> an expert but if you happen to have any pointers where we can learn more
> about the time frame it would be useful.  Just a few days ago heard
> colleagues trying to figure-out the solution to connecting file system
> hardware just a bit too far from a cluster in another building.  Ethernet
> and NFS would work but latency is a problem.

I have no good information and I do not know what a reasonable price is to you.

If you wish to connect to a cluster in another building 
with optical links and IB there are some optical solutions today.
Without "a lot of links" (=money) bandwidth maps will be lumpy.
Building to building links and beyond solutions will be expensive
many have active boxes switch-Cu<-magicbox->---optical---<magicbox>Cu-switch.    

For the current solutions scan the vendor lists from recent Supercomputer
Shows and IB interoperability events.

Floor to floor and room to room solutions like the Intel Optical IB
cables are close to par with copper when you multiply by the link length.

If you want good information put out a sane RFP and see what the vendors
can come up with.   Most importantly describe what you want solved
and see what solutions are offered.  Building to building clustering 
just seems hard to me but not all clustering requirements are equal.


-- 
	T o m  M i t c h e l l 
	Found me a new hat, now what?