[Beowulf] fast interconnects

[Jim Lux]

There's all kinds of useful things one can do if you have a multi Gbit/sec 
interconnect.  Various signal processing (Synthetic Aperture Radar 
processing, Hyperspectral imaging compression, signal analysis) spring 
immediately to mind.  Modern processors are fast enough to do a lot of the 
hard work, the problem has been getting the data in and out (a 1 GFLOP 
processor doesn't buy you much if the data rate in and out is 60+ 
Megatransfer/second (=133 MHz:2 (1 in, 1 out)))

The interconnect speed is what drives folks to incredibly expensive ASIC or 
FPGA solutions.


James Lux, P.E.
Spacecraft Radio Frequency Subsystems Group
Flight Communications Systems Section
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 161-213
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
tel: (818)354-2075
fax: (818)393-6875