gigabit switches

[Jeff Layton]

Steven,

   Since the most likely dual Athlon board already has
dual 100Mbit  NICs onboard, why not get a low cost
100Mbit switch? (e.g. HP Procurve). It will have a decent
backplane bandwidth (possibly better than a hierarchical
network). I think the price will be as good or better (just
a guess though).

Good Luck!

Jeff


Steven Berukoff wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> My group is currently outlining the plans for a ~140 node dual athlon
> cluster.  Our networking needs are minimal: no internode communication,
> rare master-slave communication (with xfers of ~tens KB), and even more
> rare very large data transfers from slave to server (~100s of MB).
>
> Now, we are currently considering a hierarchical network structure, to
> minimize costs.  In particular, we planned on having each set of ~15 nodes
> connected to a 16 port 100Mbit switch with a Gbit uplink.  Then, each Gbit
> line gets plugged into a Gbit switch.
>
> The question I have to you, my dear reader, is:  Do there exist 16 or 24
> port Gbit switches suited for this purpose?  The only ones I know of are
> made by Foundry Networks, who manufacture 16, 24, and 32 port
> models.  Have I missed some?  If so, does anyone have yea/nay
> comments?
>
> Your comments and suggestions are, as always, very appreciated.
>
> Steve
>
> =====
> Steve Berukoff                                  tel: 49-331-5677233
> Albert-Einstein-Institute                       fax: 49-331-5677298
> Am Muehlenberg 1, D14477 Golm, Germany          email:steveb at aei.mpg.de
>
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