[Beowulf] Pony: not yours.

[atchley tds.net]

On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 10:28 AM, Mark Hahn <hahn at mcmaster.ca> wrote:

> >>
> https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B83UyWf1s-CdZnFoS2RiU2lJbEU/edit?usp=drive_web
> > Interesting, but depressing, presentation.
>
> I found it unilluminating, actually.  don't we all know about power issues?
>

Know? Yes. To this extent? Maybe not.


> > At HotInterconnects in 2011, Intel gave a presentation about the
> reductions
> > in power per flop over time. The corresponding communication power
> > consumption per bit was flat (no improvement). Projecting the trends
>
> well, it has to be said that most computation is mundane and doesn't
> require
> multiple processors, let alone big clusters.  so the fact that the computer
> industry focuses on this domain is appropriate.
>
> > forward and with a 20 Mw power budget, an exascale machine's network
> would
> > consume all the power leaving nothing for computation.
>
> well, that sounds absurd - were they assuming a full-bisection fat tree of
> older (hotter, lower fanout) generation interconnect?


Even dragonfly topologies (high-radix routers with low hop count) and a
bandwidth taper of 1/2 given current power consumption levels will exceed
 20 Mw.
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