17 Dec
2007
17 Dec
'07
12:49 a.m.
OK, we talked earlier about how high this architecture could go and
there was some mention of 256 and 512 processor systems. However, I
just stumbled across a press release at LANL describing their
installation of a massive 6144 processor system consisting of 48 sets
of 128 nodes all arranged as a giant supercomputer:
<http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/1846>
This machine was decomissioned in 2004:
<http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/5836>
Something tells me that I won't be able to afford 6144 processors
without a grant and a lot of scrounging :-)
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
17 Dec
17 Dec
9:04 a.m.
Richard wrote:
OK, we talked earlier about how high this architecture
could go and
there was some mention of 256 and 512 processor systems. However, I
just stumbled across a press release at LANL describing their
installation of a massive 6144 processor system consisting of 48 sets
of 128 nodes all arranged as a giant supercomputer:
<http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/1846>
Interesting stuff. Weta Digital had a pretty impressive room full of O2k
hardware rendering the Lord of the Rings effects back around 2001. I'm not
sure if they're even still using SGI, but the rows of double-height O2k
cabinets looked pretty stunning back then - it'd be interesting to find out
what their exact config was.
cheers
Jules
10:29 a.m.
In article <47668201.5020603 at gmail.com>,
Jules Richardson <jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> writes:
Interesting stuff. Weta Digital had a pretty
impressive room full of O2k
hardware rendering the Lord of the Rings effects back around 2001. I'm not
sure if they're even still using SGI, but the rows of double-height O2k
cabinets looked pretty stunning back then - it'd be interesting to find out
what their exact config was.
Each double height rack holds two system modules. Each system module
can hold 4 node boards. Each node board has 2 CPUs (initially R10k @
195 MHz, but later R12k at 300 MHz). Each node also has a chunk of
system memory, up to 4 GB. The memory is shared between all the CPUs
through a cross-bar based interconnection fabric that is scalable with
the CPUs, i.e. there is no shared bus. Its pretty interesting!
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
10:55 a.m.
Richard wrote:
In article <47668201.5020603 at gmail.com>,
Jules Richardson <jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> writes:
Oh, I know... I loved O2k systems (still do - would love to find one someday;
I haven't messed around with one for a few years now). I'm just not sure what
Weta Digital's exact setup was - I believe the systems were all fully
populated with CPUs, but I'm not sure what their memory config was.
My recollection is of 5 or 6 rows of dual-height cabs in their machine room,
about 6 per row, with a further row or two for disk storage. I seem to
remember that a few of the cabinets were split though - an O2k in one half,
but framebuffer hardware in the other. I'm not sure if they were supplied like
that by SGI as one of their stock models, or whether it was something custom
(when I worked with SGI on projects they were pretty good at tweaking
configuration on a per-site basis).
It was most impressive to see that much SGI kit in one place, anyway - it must
have been reasonably uncommon to find such a large-scale install in a
non-government institution.
Nowadays I expect it's all PC clusters running Linux :(
cheers
Jules
Interesting stuff. Weta Digital had a pretty
impressive room full of O2k
hardware rendering the Lord of the Rings effects back around 2001. I'm not
sure if they're even still using SGI, but the rows of double-height O2k
cabinets looked pretty stunning back then - it'd be interesting to find out
what their exact config was.
Each double height rack holds two system modules. Each system module
can hold 4 node boards. Each node board has 2 CPUs (initially R10k @
195 MHz, but later R12k at 300 MHz). Each node also has a chunk of
system memory, up to 4 GB. The memory is shared between all the CPUs
through a cross-bar based interconnection fabric that is scalable with
the CPUs, i.e. there is no shared bus. Its pretty interesting! 
11:41 a.m.
On 17/12/2007 15:55, Jules Richardson wrote:
My recollection is of 5 or 6 rows of dual-height cabs
in their machine
room, about 6 per row, with a further row or two for disk storage. I
seem to remember that a few of the cabinets were split though - an O2k
in one half, but framebuffer hardware in the other. I'm not sure if they
were supplied like that by SGI as one of their stock models, or whether
it was something custom (when I worked with SGI on projects they were
pretty good at tweaking configuration on a per-site basis).
Sounds like an ordinary (for SGI types of ordinary) Onyx2. That has the
framebuffer hardware in the upper module, and CPUs in the lower; one
framebuffer module per machine, but up to 7 (IIRC) CPU modules in
multi-rack configurations.
It was most impressive to see that much SGI kit in one
place, anyway -
it must have been reasonably uncommon to find such a large-scale install
in a non-government institution.
Biggest I saw in a university was the 32-processor (4 modules, 2 racks)
we had in Computer Science. There was a deskside (8 processor, 1
module) and a later a single rack (2 modules, 16 processors) in Music.
The one I have is a single rack with two modules (16 CPUs), but at
present I have the two modules in separate racks and running as two
separate machines.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
6096
days inactive
6096
days old
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