How is a T3d different from a Beowulf/NOW/PC cluster ?
This section could also have the title “The return of the Killer (network of) micros.” The battles between the proponents of the “network of workstations” and the “it’s only a supercomputer if it costs more than 1M$ per CPU” crowd rattle endlessly round the halls of comp.sys.super but we are not going discuss the merits or otherwise of MPPs V. Vector supers. This section is purely to describe some of the differences between modern implementations of MPP technology. The term cluster can be considered to refer to any collection of generic parts pushed together to make a compute engine. e.g. Beowulf, NOW, SP2. An understanding of the applications that you will be using in an MPP system is vital when deciding what performance attributes are important to you. There are four main areas of differences between a cluster and a T3e, Interconnect bandwidth ( and low latency ), Single system image, Programming models, I/O ability. Some of these differences may erode, as cluster technology develops
