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Silicon Graphics

Journal Tet's Journal: I want a bigger computer 10

Journal by Tet
I went to an interesting talk by Eng Lim Goh of SGI on Thursday, demonstrating their Ultraviolet systems. Very cool. While there are bigger and faster computers on the planet, they're all technically clusters rather than a single computer. The SGI machines can have 4096 CPUs and 16TB of RAM running under a single Linux kernel. Nice.

Also interesting to see the stats on when their systems were delivered to McLaren and Brawn, and where the performance of those cars was afterwards. I know there's more to F1 than CFD, but it certainly plays a large part these days.

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I want a bigger computer

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  • Guess such a machine would make a nice contribution to your power bill :-P
    • That is an understatement. I have an older SGI multi-CPU system (16 Itanium CPUs in half of a 42U rack), it consumes on the order of 5kW. On the other hand, if you are in a place where electricity is cheap; they can do double duty as room heaters.
      • Quite honestly: WTF do you do with a 16-CPU machine? Sure, my inner Geek also wants one, but I'm just asking. (Yes, I'm jealous... does it show?)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Tet ( 2721 ) *
          Anything that requires lots of CPU, obviously :-)

          maggie:~% grep ^processor /proc/cpuinfo | wc -l
          16

          We use this for running the core systems of our high frequency trading business. We also have a farm of 8 way machines that we use for linear optimization. The core system farms out problems to the optimization machines, which give the results back, and decisions are made based on the results.

          • Yes, for work, obviously.... I've got a few racks filleed with that kind of material too :-P I just understood that damn_registrars had one at home.

            • I just understood that damn_registrars had one at home.

              I apologize if I created the expectation that I have this beast at home. If it was at my home, I would probably only use it during December and January, when the waste heat wouldn't be a burden.

              However to answer the question of what I do with it at work - the current best answer is "not a whole lot". The Itanium architecture is dying a slow death in terms of support - I can think of maybe two Linux distributions that still support it, and neither is free. You can run 32bit stuff on it, but it isn't wo

              • Ah, well.... I should have guessed it wasn't really yours. I used to have (actually, I still have it, but it's in the basement) a Athlon MP machine which could raise the temperature of the room it was operating in with 2C... Which was definitely noticeable..

                As for distributions that support it... Debian still has an IA64 branch, and that one is free. Just saying...

                Oh, and if you really want to fill that rack with high-end x86... Wait for 8core Xeon blades. In a Bladecenter you can put 14 blades for 9U an

                • Ah, well.... I should have guessed it wasn't really yours

                  I guess I could have been more specific. I tend to spend so much time at work that the line between home and work seems pretty well nonexistent. I'm pretty sure I'd be broke from the power costs alone if I had this beast in my home (assuming I could even afford the electrical work that I would need to have done beforehand just to turn it on).

                  As for distributions that support it... Debian still has an IA64 branch, and that one is free. Just saying...

                  I guess I overlooked that one for no good reason. I must have neglected to consider that Debian would have branches that aren't carried over into Ubuntu.

                  Oh, and if you really want to fill that rack with high-end x86... Wait for 8core Xeon blades. In a Bladecenter you can put 14 blades for 9U and then fit each of those blades with 2x8core... That's 224 cores in 9U...

                  I've been

                  • I guess I overlooked that one for no good reason. I must have neglected to consider that Debian would have branches that aren't carried over into Ubuntu.

                    Well, there is still NetBSD... Not Linux but since it runs on your toaster, it most certainly is enough for your Itanium rig :-)

                    I've been pining for a bladecenter for years, but at the current moment in my place of employment the money for such an investment simply doesn't exist. For that matter the money for just one quad-CPU 8-core Xeon system might well

                    • I guess I overlooked that one for no good reason. I must have neglected to consider that Debian would have branches that aren't carried over into Ubuntu.

                      Well, there is still NetBSD... Not Linux but since it runs on your toaster, it most certainly is enough for your Itanium rig :-)

                      Well if we want to discuss BSD I would have to point out that FreeBSD also has a ia64 branch. Which I would install if not for those pesky users ...

                      .... but there is money to power a pretty much useless rig? You must be working for government, right?

                      It does have some useful functions. The problem is more that it is nearly impossible to teach this old dog any new tricks.

                      As for government ... you're not far from correct.

                      Scratch government... The power company? (I was indeed talking wats, volts and amps)

                      At this strange place where I work, getting an electrician to setup high voltage AC is pretty trivial. We just had a three-phase dedicated line run a while ago for a new instrument

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