[Beowulf] Home beowulf - NIC latencies

[John Hearns]

On Mon, 2005-02-07 at 03:11 -0500, Patrick Geoffray wrote:
> Vincent,
> 

> Tip: desperate companies are usually young and spend a lot of VC money 
> on marketing. Quadrics does not fit, I am afraid, they have been around 
> too long :-) Furthermore, selling old hardware is not very cost 
> effective for a vendor: compatibility troubles with newer machines, 
> require to support old hardware in new drivers and new middlewares, tap 
> in inventory reserved for replacement parts, etc.

Why would Quadrics have old/second hand hardware to sell anyway?
If they have older model cards unsold they would be holding them as
spares for customers who are still running those models, as Patrick
says.

Clusters which have been upgraded or scrapped are unlikely to be
returned to Quadrics/Myricom.
Clusters are usually bought as completely integrated systems, from
companies such as ourselves. We install and configure the Myrinet
networking for customers - they don't buy direct from Myricom.
And, like many companies on this list, we provide continuing support
and advice.


So I'd say there is no conspiracy against you - if you are seeking
second hand high performance networking gear, look on eBay or ask nicely
on this list.
I was surprised recently to see small fibre channel switches go very
cheaply on eBay - not so long ago you would pay $$$$ for them.