[Beowulf] A look at the 100-core Tilera Gx

[Greg Lindahl]

On Wed, Nov 04, 2009 at 08:03:28AM -0600, Gerry Creager wrote:

> And,
> in the only reasonable space I can build out to expand into, power's $90K 
> and cooling another $100K to expand, allowing an additional 20 racks.

Uh, I'm missing how this is a big problem... $200k or $300k of capital
costs to get 20 more racks. Let's assume that you unfairly have to pay
the whole capital cost up front. How much does the equipment to fill
those racks cost? A lot more than $200k, unless you have a really low
power density, or are buying nodes with small ram, no high speed
network, etc.

So it's annoying, but not a show-stopper. If you had to build a new
building or addition, yeah, that would really hurt.

This is the fundamental problem that low power startups face. They
have a huge advantage when the machineroom is of a fixed capacity, or
if capital costs aren't accounted for properly. They have a modest
advantage for organizations that can capitalize things.

The first market isn't big enough, and the big market in which they
only have a modest advantage won't pay enough of a premium. Game over.

-- greg