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<TITLE>RE: philosophical question - limits of beowulf defn </TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Dr. Ligon presents great points. . . </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Great discussion, and I'd like to interject a little $.02 from the health care industry. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>The attractiveness of beowulf technology lies in its definition: beowulf refers to a 'class'</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>of machines, and general topology, which I believe is what the folks at NASA intended.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>That's important, because it lets me adopt the approach to what works best for my environment.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Case in point, PVM, MPICH, JPVM or even Serialization of Java classes would, as I understand </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>it be appropriately used in a beowulf cluster. That flexibility allows </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>me to run proof of concepts on the hardware I have available. </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>The general definition of beowulf-class machines also lets me focus on the functionality of </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>my application more than the particular toolset used. Speed of prototyping is crucial to my research </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>efforts where clustering in and of itself is not my core objective. So, a general purpose</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>definition rather than a detailed specification is important - specific benchmarks, although </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>an initial consieration, can be improved later.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>At the same time having a standard reference to a beowulf-class machine gives me an </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>indespensible frame of reference - and one I'll desperately need once I present my initial results</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>to the boss to ask for more hardware!!</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Richard Schilling</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Web Integration Programmer</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Affiliated Health Services</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Mount Vernon, WA USA</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: Walter B. Ligon III [<A HREF="mailto:walt@parl.ces.clemson.edu">mailto:walt@parl.ces.clemson.edu</A>]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Monday, July 17, 2000 10:56 AM</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: David S. Greenberg</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Cc: Ward William E PHDN; 'Beowulf' Mailing List (E-mail)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: Re: philosophical question - limits of beowulf defn </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>--------</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>A quick agreement on both Doug's contribution and David's posting.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>The EL community did grow up as a SUPERSET of Beowulf because there</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>are many cluster based systems that are not, technically, a Beouwlf,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>but share many interesting problems. I think it is even MORE important</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>to realize that the EL community is ALSO focused on the open-source (Linux)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>OS issue - which allows us to evolve the OS to better meet the needs of</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>more extreme systems (one of which is a Beowulf).</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>I have always been rather particular about the name "Beowulf" for two reasons:</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>first, people did cluster computing long before Beowulf. When Beowulf</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>came out many people said "so what? - it's been done before."</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>but they missed an important point in the COTS HW and open-source</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>OS! The specific characteristis of a Beowulf mean we are *free*</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>to adapt the architecture because the nodes are dedicated, because</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>the OS is open-source, because parallel computing is our goal. I</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>think the next-gen Beowulf software we are working on is going to</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>drive that point home like never before.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>second, there was an early tendency for people to say "everything is a</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>Beowulf." I'm not against everyone joining the party, by there are</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>many DIFFERENT approaches, including high availability designs,</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>true distributed systems, cycle stealing, etc. and they have</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>different issues. I don't want to dillute the effort going into</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>ANY of these areas byt saying "Hey, its ALL Beowulf, so we're doing</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>Beowulf and we don't need to do any more." That's not where its at.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>Beowulf is in its infancy, and it is NOT the answer to everyone's</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>problem. I would rather ORGANIZE our efforts so that ALL of those</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>efforts get the recoginition they deserve than let it all wind up</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>a big cloudy mess!</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>So that's why I always butt in on these discussions and why I always take</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>the position that I do. The folks that defined the term had a specific</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>thing in mind, and they have repeatedly indicated they want that definition</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>to stay true (even though some of them are now off doing DIFFERENT things).</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Some day they may come down and tell me to shut up - but until then, I will</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>try to let everyone know where this term came from. I'm not trying to be an</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>ass-hole, I just want to let you know.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Walt</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>-- </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Dr. Walter B. Ligon III</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Associate Professor</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>ECE Department</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Clemson University</FONT>
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