[Beowulf] Picking a processor

[SF Husain]

Hi

I'm currently designing a beowulf style parallel processor and am trying to
decide which processor to use for the nodes. My project requires my final
design for the parallel processor to be able to provide a sustained throuput
of 0.25 TFlops.

My research tells me that in general that the flop rate scales up linearly.
My trouble is that I'm having trouble finding estimates for the flop rates
of the processors I'm looking at.

I've looked at the specfp2000 results but as far as I can tell their numbers
do not easily convert to a flop rate. Could anyone tell me how I can find
estimates for the flop rates of processors or if there is any rough sort of
conversion that I can do on these spec (or any other) benchmark results.

I'm aware that the actual rate is dependent on type of work given  to the
processors. However my project is only a design exercise aimed at developing
research skills so even a very rough conversion or sourse of sample results
would be suitable for my purposes.

If anyone could help that would be great.

Thanks

Sufi