[Beowulf] Win64 Clusters!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Douglas Eadline]

> On Mon, Apr 02, 2007 at 12:12:29PM -0400, Douglas Eadline wrote:
>> > Hi All,
>> >
>> > Would any of you please like to share usage-experience/views/comments
>> > about Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 based Beowulf Clusters?
>>
>> As a point of clarification, there is no such thing
>> as a "Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 based Beowulf Clusters"
>> This link may help:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_cluster
>>
>
> I don't know why everyone is so obsessed with saying "Your Beowulf must
> run
> an (F)OSS operating system to be a Beowulf."

Because I believe, "the art of Beowulf" has a rich history of development
that is based on the original definition from "How to Build a Beowulf" by
Thomas Sterling, John Salmon, Donald J. Becker and Daniel F. Savarese:

 ".. a collection of personal computers interconnected
  by widely available networking technology running anyone of several
  open source Unix-like operating systems. "

I would not want to see it usurped by other clustering efforts.
I believe that if we do not protect against revisionist history, then
all of a sudden WCCS is now "Beowulf" computing. Such things, in my
opinion dis-honor all the people (who I respect) that have contributed
to this community. To me it is almost akin to removing author credit
in open source software.

A short aside. I overheard a conversation at SC-2000 about
the origin of Beowulf from a MS representative "Beowulf
was a copy of the Microsoft Wolfpack software. They chose
that name so it would seem like Wolfpack some how".
Truth is a slippery fish.

Certainly Thomas Sterling can rework the definition as he pleases
(he co-authored it), And I am not disparaging WCCS or
any other clustering method. I just want to keep the credit
where credit is due.

So I stand as a defender of the faith, as it where.

 --
 Doug

>
> You can build a Beowulf out of Windows. God only knows why you'd want to,
> but
> you can.
>
> Just to invent a little bit of evidence, Thomas Sterling edited a book
> called "Beowulf Cluster Computing with Windows"
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-Computing-Scientific-Engineering-Computation/dp/0262692759/ref=pd_sim_b_5/002-1371173-4594458?ie=UTF8&qid=1175531228&sr=8-1
>
> It was actually two books - a "Beowulf Cluster Computing with Linux" and a
> "Beowulf Cluster Computing with Windows". 75% of the text was the same.
> (We
> wrote a chapter in it - we used the same chapter, with latex macros
> \iflinux
> and \ifwinnt for whichever book was being built)
>
> The Linux book way outsold the Windows book, and so there was no second
> edition of the Windows book. My guess is that most everyone had the good
> sense to say "Windows as the base OS for my cluster? No thanks"
>
>
>> >
>> > What in your opinion is the future of such clusters?
>> >
>> > How you compare these with the LINUX CLUSTERS?
>>
>> You will not find much information on this list as
>> it mainly focuses on Linux Beowulf style clusters.
>>
>
> The parallel programming part of this list applies to Windows as
> much as it applies to Linux (or FreeBSD or Darwin or HURD)
>
> -Erik
>
>
> !DSPAM:46113337114068298414181!
>


-- 
Doug