[Beowulf] slightly [OT] smp boxes

[Mark Hahn]

>>> but there are newer Altix systems
>>> (XE series) that use x86-based processors.
>>
>> just IB clusters.  I don't think any SW NUMA is included, or do they
>> support ScaleMP?
>
> It is my understanding that the Altix architecture is nothing more than
> the Origin NUMA architecture modified to accept Intel Itanium and
> (later) Xeon processors.

no.  the origin architecture (mips) was developed into the ia64-based altix.
there is no current numalink-based system other than ia64.  it's conceivable
that this will change, since intel periodically makes noises about ia64
and x86_64 sharing infrastructure.  that seems very attractive, but otoh
the market for large SMP is quite small.

> Not IB at all, but a true expandable NUMA
> architecture. Am I wrong, or is the XE series that much different?

it's unrelated.  is that different enough? ;)