3 ms·

In terms of performance per cost, the cluster can't compete in terms of raw speed of a x86 system. If its for educational purposes (looking into how algorithms

In terms of performance per cost, the cluster can't compete in terms of raw speed of a x86 system. If its for educational purposes (looking into how algorithms work across distributed systems) why not just use a parallella? It costs $99.

ajford 11y ago
I haven't looked very closely at the Parallella, but I don't think it's a direct comparison to this cluster. Parallella contains multiple cores on a single board, which seem to share common resources. There are two different forms of parallel processing, one for multi-core on a single node (i.e. shared RAM/peripherals), and one for multi-node (i.e. networked servers), where it can be highly impractical to share data due to the interconnections (usually Ethernet/Infiniband). In most modern clusters, you have to use both approaches. RPi 2 is nice since you have multiple cores, and the cluster shown here allows you to play with the other side of the equation, multi-node parallelism. EDIT: I looked into the parallella a bit. Still can't tell how well it represents multi-node parallelism, but it claims to have "a fast on chip network within a distributed shared memory architecture". So theoretically, this can simulate the interconnection of a large scale cluster, but I have no real knowledge of this board.
- chadzawistowski 11y ago
  The other problem with the parallela is its weird architecture. Its master processor is a dual-core ARM, but the 16x "epiphany" cores only have a C++ compiler. It would not be possible to program the epiphany cores with Erlang, for instance.
  - weatherlight 11y ago
    no, but you can send processes to each of the cores. https://www.parallella.org/2015/03/20/erlang-otp-and-the-parallella-board/ https://www.parallella.org/2015/03/20/erlang-otp-and-the-par...
rebootthesystem 11y ago
I see this as an educational project and, as such, it's neat and inspiring for kids. A cool looking lash-up of hardware with blinking LED's is always cool. Beyond that a computer running Xen and a bunch of VM's is far more convenient, useful, reliable and probably more powerful. Towards the other end of the scale, for example, we have a rack full of 1RU machines we use to run FEA and other purposes.
duaneb 11y ago
I don't think parallella gets you anything (but more cycles/cent) in terms of education about clusters and distributed systems. Multi-core parallelism, sure, but that's an entirely different paradigm.
ris 11y ago
"If its for educational purposes (looking into how algorithms work across distributed systems)" If it's for educational purposes, you don't need any hardware at all, as there's no aspect of it that can't be fairly easily simulated in software. It's a toy.

ajford 11y ago

I haven't looked very closely at the Parallella, but I don't think it's a direct comparison to this cluster. Parallella contains multiple cores on a single board, which seem to share common resources. There are two different forms of parallel processing, one for multi-core on a single node (i.e. shared RAM/peripherals), and one for multi-node (i.e. networked servers), where it can be highly impractical to share data due to the interconnections (usually Ethernet/Infiniband). In most modern clusters, you have to use both approaches. RPi 2 is nice since you have multiple cores, and the cluster shown here allows you to play with the other side of the equation, multi-node parallelism. EDIT: I looked into the parallella a bit. Still can't tell how well it represents multi-node parallelism, but it claims to have "a fast on chip network within a distributed shared memory architecture". So theoretically, this can simulate the interconnection of a large scale cluster, but I have no real knowledge of this board.

chadzawistowski 11y ago
The other problem with the parallela is its weird architecture. Its master processor is a dual-core ARM, but the 16x "epiphany" cores only have a C++ compiler. It would not be possible to program the epiphany cores with Erlang, for instance.
- weatherlight 11y ago
  no, but you can send processes to each of the cores. https://www.parallella.org/2015/03/20/erlang-otp-and-the-parallella-board/ https://www.parallella.org/2015/03/20/erlang-otp-and-the-par...

rebootthesystem 11y ago

I see this as an educational project and, as such, it's neat and inspiring for kids. A cool looking lash-up of hardware with blinking LED's is always cool. Beyond that a computer running Xen and a bunch of VM's is far more convenient, useful, reliable and probably more powerful. Towards the other end of the scale, for example, we have a rack full of 1RU machines we use to run FEA and other purposes.

duaneb 11y ago

I don't think parallella gets you anything (but more cycles/cent) in terms of education about clusters and distributed systems. Multi-core parallelism, sure, but that's an entirely different paradigm.

ris 11y ago

"If its for educational purposes (looking into how algorithms work across distributed systems)" If it's for educational purposes, you don't need any hardware at all, as there's no aspect of it that can't be fairly easily simulated in software. It's a toy.