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I am not trying to be difficult but how is a $1.4M anything for the masses? Are they allowing the public to run jobs on the machine? Is there anything new about

by dfc 15y ago

I am not trying to be difficult but how is a $1.4M anything for the masses? Are they allowing the public to run jobs on the machine? Is there anything new about HS that brings SC500 power closer to my home office?

jrappleye 15y ago
If by 'SC500' you mean a supercomputer that has a high ranking on the Top500 list, it's already here: http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/11/amazons-cloud-is-the-worlds-42nd-fastest-supercomputer.ars http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/11/amazons-cloud-i...
- dfc 15y ago
  I meant how does the VT system bring SC500 to the masses. As in the "supercomputer for the masses"?
  - jrappleye 15y ago
    Sounds like they're interested in improving GPU development tools, and how to utilize them for tasks they're good for versus what a traditional CPU is good for. From http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/12/vt-supercomputer/ http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/12/vt-supercompute... "The Virginia Tech team is figuring out how to best to farm out computing jobs so that the GPUs and CPUs do what they do best, without ever going idle, and without spending too much time communicating with one another. It’s not easy, but they’re using HokieSpeed to build tools for designing and compiling software so that it can be tweaked to run fast on these systems. They’ve also built what they call an “automated runtime system,” which works with the supercomputer’s operating system to speed things up even further." I think the 'supercomputing for the masses' part comes from the fact that the peak performance of a relatively low-cost GPU is large compared to a CPU, but actually taking advantage of that performance is still difficult. They're aiming to change that with improved software development tools. At least, that's what I gathered from the article. Here's a link to research they're doing on GPU computing: http://synergy.cs.vt.edu/ http://synergy.cs.vt.edu/
FeministHacker 15y ago
Whilst your average person at home may not be able to fork out $1.4M, this is in the afordable range of many medium to large businesses, and opens up access to private compute clusters* The highest cost for supercomputers isn't the raw hardware - it's the power consumption. This also includes the cooling needs of a large cluster. Over the lifespan of a cluster, these will add up to a significant multiple of their base cost. * of course, this may not be the ideal way to provide access to these services

by dfc 15y ago

jrappleye 15y ago

If by 'SC500' you mean a supercomputer that has a high ranking on the Top500 list, it's already here: http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/11/amazons-cloud-is-the-worlds-42nd-fastest-supercomputer.ars http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/11/amazons-cloud-i...

dfc 15y ago
I meant how does the VT system bring SC500 to the masses. As in the "supercomputer for the masses"?
- jrappleye 15y ago
  Sounds like they're interested in improving GPU development tools, and how to utilize them for tasks they're good for versus what a traditional CPU is good for. From http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/12/vt-supercomputer/ http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/12/vt-supercompute... "The Virginia Tech team is figuring out how to best to farm out computing jobs so that the GPUs and CPUs do what they do best, without ever going idle, and without spending too much time communicating with one another. It’s not easy, but they’re using HokieSpeed to build tools for designing and compiling software so that it can be tweaked to run fast on these systems. They’ve also built what they call an “automated runtime system,” which works with the supercomputer’s operating system to speed things up even further." I think the 'supercomputing for the masses' part comes from the fact that the peak performance of a relatively low-cost GPU is large compared to a CPU, but actually taking advantage of that performance is still difficult. They're aiming to change that with improved software development tools. At least, that's what I gathered from the article. Here's a link to research they're doing on GPU computing: http://synergy.cs.vt.edu/ http://synergy.cs.vt.edu/

FeministHacker 15y ago

Whilst your average person at home may not be able to fork out $1.4M, this is in the afordable range of many medium to large businesses, and opens up access to private compute clusters* The highest cost for supercomputers isn't the raw hardware - it's the power consumption. This also includes the cooling needs of a large cluster. Over the lifespan of a cluster, these will add up to a significant multiple of their base cost. * of course, this may not be the ideal way to provide access to these services