[Beowulf] 512 nodes Myrinet cluster Challanges

[Kozin, I (Igor)]

Hello Kevin,
interesting that you said that.
We are in the process of developing a database for 
application benchmark results because we produce quite a bit of data
and only a small fraction goes into our reports.
The database is for our internal use to begin with
but we also plan to make it available online
as soon as we are happy with it.

At the moment we run all the benchmarks ourselves.
But then we are obviously limited in the amount of
work we can do and the number of benchmarks we can cover.
We also contemplate what if we start accepting results 
from vendors (or from anybody for that matter).
I am talking here about well established scientific codes
(as we are serving the UK academia) and well defined
test cases. (We would not mind ISV codes too but there
are usually licensing issues.)

Is there indeed sufficient interest in such a resource?

Should the data entry be retained to us (say, based on the
output file and the technical description provided)
or left to be entered through the web interface?
Somehow I feel more inclined towards the former
although it would mean more work for us.
But then again it all depends if anybody will bother at all...


I. Kozin  (i.kozin at dl.ac.uk)
CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory
tel: 01925 603308
http://www.cse.clrc.ac.uk/disco

> 
>   It would be wonderful if someone (preferably 
> CPU/Interconnect neutral)
> would sign up to set up and maintain a similar page for application
> benchmark results.  I personally have spent many hours trying to scour
> the web for such results, trying to get a feel for how PathScale
> products (both our interconnect and our compilers) are doing 
> relative to
> the competition.  This type of information is not only useful for
> vendors, but would be incredibly useful for customers.
> 
>   In the absence of such a central repository, we post many 
> application
> scaling and performance results on our website in the form of a white
> paper.  We would be very happy if other vendors did the same, 
> but better
> still would be an independent body had a place for such results.
>