[Beowulf] SC05 blogs and observations

[Srihari Angaluri]

Douglas Eadline wrote:

> I'll added a note to help clarify the text. But, what I was trying to say
> was that I would have put a "big" cluster out where people could see it --
> like everyone else does at SC. Not that a big cluster means a whole lot,
> but I guess what I was looking for was kind of a statement from MS.

Well, I was only responding to your statement 'Why no cluster on the 
main drag? Why no big cluster that says "Hey we can play to, look at us, 
we have blinking lights". For the life of me I do not know why they had 
no cluster. I'm not even going to speculate.'

Also, I don't think you need a big cluster to prove that you have 
cluster software. And I think that's what Microsoft was trying to do - 
prove that they do have cluster software now, as opposed to talking in 
vacuum. From what I heard, scalability and performance are not even in 
the picture yet because this is the first version of the software, and 
not to mention what they showed at SC was a beta. So, there was no need 
for a big rack there :) I think in a way it better proves that they are 
more serious about this stuff, rather than showing a big dead rack with 
one or two nodes running their software really. Anyway, let me make my 
statements true by saying "I am speculating." :) Heh, that was easy!

> I had heard from some of the people at CTC that .NET was going to be very
> useful with clusters. I think it can work for some applications, but of
> course not all.

Well, Java is equally easy for clusters too :) .NET is just another 
enabling tool. It is interesting for Windows clusters because you can 
quickly prototype and test distributed applications as opposed to 
writing apps in traditional ways, like using Sockets. Plus, .NET is more 
friendly for Windows because Windows Server 2003 and beyond have native 
.NET support in the OS. However, .NET is not an MPI replacement (and 
frankly I don't think it ever will be).

> 
> Thanks for your feedback.

Thanks for having an open mind :)

Srihari

> 
> --
> Doug