Anyone use Alpha 500a to form a beowulf cluster ?

[Patrick Geoffray]

Ron Chen wrote:

> If all you want is simple batch jobs, you don't even
> need to modify the kernel, all you need is a batch
> system, like PBS (Portable Batch System), or SGE (Sun
> Grid Engine). 

Can you imagine a cluster without a batch queue system ? 
You seem to present it as the most important component.
I mean a batch queue may be nice and usefull, but I 
know a lot of machines without one. All of you 


> If you want to run parallel jobs (like PVM or MPICH),
> then you can also use the batch systems to schedule
> the jobs. However, TCP/IP and Ethernet is not fast
> enough for message passing, so you may need to install
> SCORE and Myrinet.

TCP/IP and Ethernet are good enough for a lot of usage, 
including message passing. It's certainely the cheapest 
and easiest way to implement message passing.
BTW, you can use Myrinet without Score, or even Score 
without Myrinet.

Patrick

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