I'm sure every pc gamer has had the dream of playing games at life-like resolution at faster than life speeds on a better than every other net connection with a bigger and more expensive than every other computer.
well, today I will discuss how to make a budget supercomputer. specifically, I will teach the basics of building a Beowulf cluster supercomputer.
first off, the basics of a supercomputer, and what exactly a supercomputer is.
a desktop pc, also called a workstation, may be anything from the most basic tower pc to a low power supercomputer. they fit into one case, and sit by one desk, and are used by one main person.
secondly, there are mainframes. mainframes differ from supercomputers only in their use. while a supercomputer runs processor intensive tasks, like molecule folding simulation, it is designed to run one main thing at a time (this is really the basics, supercomputers can run many things at once.) however, a mainframe is designed to run many things at once, from many different users. they are far less common than they once were, but anyplace where the workers or students have only a mouse, keyboard, and monitor at their desk are most likely connecting to a central mainframe. they are designed to work with hundreds of people at once, and each processor unit usually works on a single persons tasks.
third, thee are supercomputers. the basic definition of a supercomputer is a computer with multiple processor cores connected via a networking protocol. a supercomputer usually uses the processing power to run intensive programs and simulations, using the power in it's cores to parallel run an intensive program, unlike a mainframe, which divides up the power to run programs for many people at once.
now, how to build one. you may be thinking hat this is an insurmountable task. but I will show you the basics of building an easily expandable, affordable, supercomputer. If the work and software needed is too complicated, dell is the exclusive retailer for the Cray CX-1iWS individual workstation supercomputer. base unit starts at around $10K. it will easily hit $20K when you add on the required units. Do I have your attention now?
first, you will need several desktop computers (typical tower units), a gigabit network switch, 2 monitors, 2 keyboards, 2 mice, a linux OS designed for beowulf clusters, and, if the linux OS not include it, a beowulf master/slave assignment program.
step one: decide what computer is to be the master unit. plug into it, 1 mouse, 1 keyboad, and 1 monitor. make sure it had two gigabit network cards in it. one will connect to the internet, the other to the gigabit switch. plug the gigabit switch card into the master port on the gigabit switch. now plug every other computer (each will need a gigabit card in it) into the remaining slots.
install linux on each computer, then install the master program onto the master, and the slave program onto each slave computer. after a bit of fine tuning, you now have a supercomputer that can parallel process by sending out the data to one of the slave computers for processing, which will then send the data back to the main computer. the second monitor, keyboard, and mouse are for ease of installing the slave programs so you don't need to power down the master, and as a backup, in case one slave unit goes bad, you can hook up the parts and run through it's programs and files to diagnose the issue.
Now, before you doubt that these exist, one of the most notable of these is the Stone Souper Computer, at Oak Ridge National Lab. For a while, it was even the most powerful computer in the Labs.
here is a good article about it: http://www.bulldognews.net/super_computer.html
well, I hope this article enlightened you and inspired you to build and experiment with your own beowulf cluster supercomputer.
well, today I will discuss how to make a budget supercomputer. specifically, I will teach the basics of building a Beowulf cluster supercomputer.
first off, the basics of a supercomputer, and what exactly a supercomputer is.
a desktop pc, also called a workstation, may be anything from the most basic tower pc to a low power supercomputer. they fit into one case, and sit by one desk, and are used by one main person.
secondly, there are mainframes. mainframes differ from supercomputers only in their use. while a supercomputer runs processor intensive tasks, like molecule folding simulation, it is designed to run one main thing at a time (this is really the basics, supercomputers can run many things at once.) however, a mainframe is designed to run many things at once, from many different users. they are far less common than they once were, but anyplace where the workers or students have only a mouse, keyboard, and monitor at their desk are most likely connecting to a central mainframe. they are designed to work with hundreds of people at once, and each processor unit usually works on a single persons tasks.
third, thee are supercomputers. the basic definition of a supercomputer is a computer with multiple processor cores connected via a networking protocol. a supercomputer usually uses the processing power to run intensive programs and simulations, using the power in it's cores to parallel run an intensive program, unlike a mainframe, which divides up the power to run programs for many people at once.
now, how to build one. you may be thinking hat this is an insurmountable task. but I will show you the basics of building an easily expandable, affordable, supercomputer. If the work and software needed is too complicated, dell is the exclusive retailer for the Cray CX-1iWS individual workstation supercomputer. base unit starts at around $10K. it will easily hit $20K when you add on the required units. Do I have your attention now?
first, you will need several desktop computers (typical tower units), a gigabit network switch, 2 monitors, 2 keyboards, 2 mice, a linux OS designed for beowulf clusters, and, if the linux OS not include it, a beowulf master/slave assignment program.
step one: decide what computer is to be the master unit. plug into it, 1 mouse, 1 keyboad, and 1 monitor. make sure it had two gigabit network cards in it. one will connect to the internet, the other to the gigabit switch. plug the gigabit switch card into the master port on the gigabit switch. now plug every other computer (each will need a gigabit card in it) into the remaining slots.
install linux on each computer, then install the master program onto the master, and the slave program onto each slave computer. after a bit of fine tuning, you now have a supercomputer that can parallel process by sending out the data to one of the slave computers for processing, which will then send the data back to the main computer. the second monitor, keyboard, and mouse are for ease of installing the slave programs so you don't need to power down the master, and as a backup, in case one slave unit goes bad, you can hook up the parts and run through it's programs and files to diagnose the issue.
Now, before you doubt that these exist, one of the most notable of these is the Stone Souper Computer, at Oak Ridge National Lab. For a while, it was even the most powerful computer in the Labs.
here is a good article about it: http://www.bulldognews.net/super_computer.html
well, I hope this article enlightened you and inspired you to build and experiment with your own beowulf cluster supercomputer.
