[Beowulf] Re: Finally, a solution for the 64 core 4TB RAM market

[Jason Riedy]

And Mark Hahn writes:
> while I like the idea of these being available, I wonder where the
> real (big) market is.

You mean other than commercial / HR databases that were built on
Sun's SMPs and now have a questionable upgrade path?

Likely replacing current mid-range, <100-node clusters with a
single box.  MPI code still runs, you gain easy access to threaded
code, and the sequential/slow parts are faster.  The main
difference will be in I/O, but bumping the memory way up will make
I/O less important for many uses.

Not considering memory, prices a bit below 20+ dual-core nodes +
interconnect cost would make it a no-brainer.  Depending on the I/O
and memory density trade-off, and assuming the manufacturing costs
are reasonable, this could support a pretty large profit...

Jason