SCSI as a network interface

[Melchior]

On May 31, 1999 Bill Frederickson said:

>Thanks all for the replies.
>
>Perhaps I should have been a little more specific about my intentions.
>I'm looking for a fast, easy way to network a cluster [Beowulf style] of
>PC's each of which already  have SCSI controlers in them. When I was
>reading through the mail messages I saw what I thought was a reference
>to using the SCSI controler as a means of interconnecting the nodes. So,
>not being a SCSI expret,  I posted the message in hopes that maybe this
>might be a possible way of doing it.  I was hoping to avoid the adtional
>cost of NIC cards, switches, etc.
>
>Any thoughts, and/or suggestions would be most appreciated.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Bill


SCSI is not really suitable for direct network connection.  Each SCSI bus
needs to be terminated at both ends within the same machine.  Given that
network cards are cheap nowadays (hubs too), the path of least resistance
is to put in some thirty dollar NE 2000 compatibles.  If you don't want to
spend
(as little as) a hundred dollars per hub, you can use 10 base 2 (coaxial
network
cable and tees).  The downside is that your network will only run at 10 MBs,
but it's very cheap and performance will suffice to test many of the
concepts
in a smaller array.  If you decide in the future that you need more
bandwidth
inside the cluster the cards can be replaced with 10/100 cards and you only
have to throw out a couple of hundred dollars worth of stuff.

D. D. (Daye) Dancer
daye@ultramip.com