4 ms·

The slots have separate load averages in https://sipeed.com/assets/cluster-la.45176f2b.jpg https://sipeed.com/assets/cluster-la.45176f2b.jpg, so it really is a

The slots have separate load averages in https://sipeed.com/assets/cluster-la.45176f2b.jpg https://sipeed.com/assets/cluster-la.45176f2b.jpg, so it really is a cluster with multiple kernels running.

snvzz 3y ago
The cluster seems most non-sensical to me. I'd instead look at SOPHON SG2042[0], such as in the Milk-V Pioneer[1] board. 0. https://www.sophgo.com/product/introduce/sg2042.html https://www.sophgo.com/product/introduce/sg2042.html 1. https://milkv.io/pioneer https://milkv.io/pioneer
- brucehoult 3y ago
  We don't know the price yet. The cluster might work out to similar price/performance to the Pioneer, just with half of each and a worse programming model. Have you noticed the Pioneer price has increased from $1999 to $2499? You can buy 16 of the 8 GB RAM + 8 GB eMMC Lichee Pi 4As for $1904 and you'll have the same 64 cores, the same 128 GB RAM, and now $600 left over to buy power supply, case, some nice ethernet or USB3 switch. You won't have that 64 MB of L3 cache, and you'll have a cluster programming model instead of a single OS instance. I assume the 7 module cluster will give at least some cost savings over buying individual LPi4As, and certainly more convenience, though less so than a Pioneer.
  - snvzz 3y ago
    >and a worse programming model. Having several computers in a cluster is not comparable to having the same amount of cores in a single chip. A worse programming model indeed, by no less than an order of magnitude. The one use I see for it would be research into scaling in clusters.
    - fweimer 3y ago
      Such a cluster might be useful for a distribution build farm, where you can fan out builds across the cluster (instead of trying to distribute a single build). It depends on whether the hardware is actually shipping now (obviously), how stable it is, and if the system has decent remote management. Of course, most people in the RISC-V camp probably hope to move beyond such hacks sooner than later.
      - brucehoult 3y ago
        Even for a single build, distcc has been around and doing a pretty good job of papering over this problem since the mid 2000s.
        snvzz 3y ago
        Else, we can have a Beowulf cluster of LM4A.

The slots have separate load averages in https://sipeed.com/assets/cluster-la.45176f2b.jpg https://sipeed.com/assets/cluster-la.45176f2b.jpg, so it really is a cluster with multiple kernels running.

snvzz 3y ago

The cluster seems most non-sensical to me. I'd instead look at SOPHON SG2042[0], such as in the Milk-V Pioneer[1] board. 0. https://www.sophgo.com/product/introduce/sg2042.html https://www.sophgo.com/product/introduce/sg2042.html 1. https://milkv.io/pioneer https://milkv.io/pioneer

brucehoult 3y ago
We don't know the price yet. The cluster might work out to similar price/performance to the Pioneer, just with half of each and a worse programming model. Have you noticed the Pioneer price has increased from $1999 to $2499? You can buy 16 of the 8 GB RAM + 8 GB eMMC Lichee Pi 4As for $1904 and you'll have the same 64 cores, the same 128 GB RAM, and now $600 left over to buy power supply, case, some nice ethernet or USB3 switch. You won't have that 64 MB of L3 cache, and you'll have a cluster programming model instead of a single OS instance. I assume the 7 module cluster will give at least some cost savings over buying individual LPi4As, and certainly more convenience, though less so than a Pioneer.
- snvzz 3y ago
  >and a worse programming model. Having several computers in a cluster is not comparable to having the same amount of cores in a single chip. A worse programming model indeed, by no less than an order of magnitude. The one use I see for it would be research into scaling in clusters.
  - fweimer 3y ago
    Such a cluster might be useful for a distribution build farm, where you can fan out builds across the cluster (instead of trying to distribute a single build). It depends on whether the hardware is actually shipping now (obviously), how stable it is, and if the system has decent remote management. Of course, most people in the RISC-V camp probably hope to move beyond such hacks sooner than later.
    - brucehoult 3y ago
      Even for a single build, distcc has been around and doing a pretty good job of papering over this problem since the mid 2000s.
      - snvzz 3y ago
        Else, we can have a Beowulf cluster of LM4A.