More: Big BLU - Super Computer

[drew at drewtaylor.com (Drew Taylor)]

markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
>
> Lastly, and probably more importantly, what do we want it to do/be? I have
> been thinking about this. I think "Big BLU" should be a learning tool and
> testbed for members. Doing redundant load balanced stuff is just too
> corporate to be fun, but parallel programing is a blast. So that means
> something like MPI (PVM is sort of fading isn't it?)

I agree that I would like it to be a learning tool. For myself, it would 
be first about learning more about sysadmining & cluster setup. But I'd 
also love to learn more about parallel programming. Not just how to do 
the programming, but also about what types of problems are better suited 
for clusters.

> We could have contests for projects, where people submit suggestions for a
> project, and the group votes. If we have enough interest, we could even
> split up into teams and compete for the fastest solution to the problem.
> Maybe even compete with other user's groups!

Contests would be fun and I think might help inspire people to think 
more creatively knowing they have to compete against the next guy.

> I think this could be real fun. What do y'all think?

Definitely! I've got probably 5-6 boxes I'd contribute (~700 MHz 
PII/III). All have network, video, (& sound) built in. If they boot off 
the network (and depending on the types of code we throw at it) they 
might not even need drives.

Drew
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