[Beowulf] standards for GFLOPS / power consumption measurement?

[Ted Matsumura]

Timothy,
 I agree completely, I think Doug and the Kronos team did a most interesting 
DIY project. It makes me want to cluster all the PC's in the house together 
and run benchmarks, then I read the fine print and realized most of my 
hardware isn't regularly available anymore, except on ebay... ;)
 Maybe Doug could start another DIY project using parts that must be used 
and donated, or have come from ebay??!!
 On 5/10/05, Timothy Bole <tbole1 at umbc.edu> wrote: 
> 
> this seems to me, at least, to be a bit of an unfair comparison. if
> someone were to just give me a cluster with 80386 processors, then i would
> tie for the lead forever, as 0/{any number>0}=0. {not counting if someone
> were to *pay* me to take said cluster of 80386's}...
> 
> having inhabited many an underfunded academic department, i have seen that
> there are many places where there is just not money to throw at any
> research labs, including computational facilities. i think that the point
> of the article was to demonstrate that one can build a useful beowulf for
> a dollar amount that is not unreasonable to find at small companies and
> universities. not everyone can count on the generosity of strangers
> handing out network cards and hubs. so, the US$/GFLOP is a decent, but
> *very* generic, means of getting the most of that generic dollar.
> 
> of course, the bottom line is that a cost benefit analysis for any cluster
> is really necessary, and the typical type of problem to be run on said
> cluster should factor into this. i applaud the work of the KRONOS team
> for demonstrating the proof-of-principle that one can design and build a
> useful beowulf for US$2500.
> 
> cheers,
> twb
> 
> 
> On Tue, 10 May 2005, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
> 
> > How do you categorize second hand bought systems?
> >
> > I bought for 325 euro a third dual k7 mainboard + 2 processors.
> >
> > The rest i removed from old machines that get thrown away otherwise.
> > Like 8GB harddisk. Amazingly biggest problem was getting a case to 
> reduce
> > sound production :)
> >
> > Network cards i got for free, very nice gesture from someone.
> >
> > So when speaking of gflops per dollar at linpack, this will destroy of
> > course any record of $2500 currently, especially for applications 
> needing
> > bandwidth to other processors, if i see what i paid for this self
> > constructed beowulf.
> >
> > At 05:19 PM 5/9/2005 -0400, Douglas Eadline - ClusterWorld Magazine 
> wrote:
> > >On Thu, 5 May 2005, Ted Matsumura wrote:
> > >
> > >> I've noted that the orionmulti web site specifies 230 Gflops peak, 
> 110
> > >> sustained, ~48% of peak with Linpack which works out to ~$909 / Gflop 
> ?
> > >> The Clusterworld value box with 8 Sempron 2500s specifies a peak 
> Gflops
> > by
> > >> measuring CPU Ghz x 2 (1 - FADD, 1 FMUL), and comes out with a rating 
> of
> > 52%
> > >> of peak using HPL @ ~ $140/Gflop (sustained?)
> > >
> > >It is hard to compare. I don't know what sustained or peak means in the
> > >context of their tests. There is the actual number (which I assume is
> > >sustained) then the theoretical peak (which I assume is peak).
> > >
> > >And our cost/Gflop does not take into consideration the construction
> > >cost. In my opinion when reporting these type of numbers, there
> > >should be two categories "DIY/self assembled" and "turn-key". Clearly
> > >Kronos is DIY system and will always have an advantage of a
> > >turnkey system.
> > >
> > >
> > >> So what would the orionmulti measure out with HPL? What would the
> > >> Clusterworld value box measure out with Linpack?
> > >
> > >Other benchmarks are here (including some NAS runs):
> > >
> > >http://www.clusterworld.com/kronos/bps-logs/
> >
> > >
> >
> > >
> > >> Another line item spec I don't get is rocketcalc's (
> > >> http://www.rocketcalc.com/saturn_he.pdf )"Max Average Load" ?? What 
> does
> > >> this mean?? How do I replicate "Max Average Load" on other systems??
> > >> I'm curious if one couldn't slightly up the budget for the 
> clusterworld
> > box
> > >> to use higher speed procs or maybe dual procs per node and see some
> > >> interesting value with regards to low $$/Gflop?? Also, the 
> clusterworld
> > box
> > >> doesn't include the cost of the "found" utility rack, but does 
> include the
> > >> cost of the plastic node boxes. What's up with that??
> > >
> > >This was explained in the article. We assumed that shelving was 
> optional
> > >because others my wish to just put the cluster on existing shelves or
> > >table top (or with enough Velcro strips and wire ties build a 
> standalone
> > >cube!)
> > >
> > >Doug
> > >>
> > >
> > >----------------------------------------------------------------
> > >Editor-in-chief ClusterWorld Magazine
> > >Desk: 610.865.6061
> > >Cell: 610.390.7765 Redefining High Performance Computing
> > >Fax: 610.865.6618 www.clusterworld.com <http://www.clusterworld.com>
> > >
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> 
> =========================================================================
> Timothy W. Bole a.k.a valencequark
> Graduate Student
> Department of Physics
> Theoretical and Computational Condensed Matter
> UMBC
> 4104551924
> reply-to: valencequark at umbc.edu
> 
> http://www.beowulf.org
> =========================================================================
>
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