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| Thread ID: 32622 | 2003-04-24 03:32:00 | How exactly do I cluster network 2 PCs to make one big processing beast!? | PoWa (203) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 138356 | 2003-04-24 03:32:00 | Its been on my mind for over a year now. How do I network two machines to combine the processing speeds and memory??. For example a 1.1Ghz Athlon and a 1.5Ghz celeron working together over a network to finish the same task (video encoding) making the total processing speed 2.6Ghz? What software do I need for the task? What hardware? Step by step instructions? I already have the computers networked in windows. I know its kind of a closely guarded secret, because if you networked 40+ PCs this way you would have processing power equivalent to that of a supercomputer and it could be used to crack secret codes, algorithms etc. Rest assured I only want to use it for 2-3 PCs :) And it would be useful for all those video editors out there wanting to get the job done quicker! Cheers, PôWâ |
PoWa (203) | ||
| 138357 | 2003-04-24 04:00:00 | You don't. Its not that easy, if only it was..... You need both processors on a multi-processor board, as you have it the network speed would be a joke for trying to share tasks to gain improvement. Even a 100 Mbit full duplex ethernet would be so slow relative to memory and processor speeds that its a major blockage in the system. Get a dedicated gigahertz range of data bus, and (non-windows?)operating systems controllers and you might see an improvement. Or by a 3 GHz CPU and motherboard. MUCH cheaper There is a reasonable hit on multiprocessor overheads, so 2 and 2 dont equal 4, more like 2.5 or 3 Or is this a troll post? |
godfather (25) | ||
| 138358 | 2003-04-24 04:06:00 | just giving your post a quick glance, all i can say is: beowulf www.google.co.nz |
whetu (237) | ||
| 138359 | 2003-04-24 04:14:00 | I have never seen it done in windows but in linux it is veruy posable. the problem is getting a program that is happy to run in a clustered way. much like ho9w only some programs can run on a twin CPU system and take advantage of it. do a google search for linux clustering and have a read. |
robsonde (120) | ||
| 138360 | 2003-04-24 04:24:00 | Uh, from my understanding, you'd need Windows 2000 Advanced Sever, though it might actually be Datacenter Server. One of them, or maybe both, support clustering. | agent (30) | ||
| 138361 | 2003-04-24 04:32:00 | Waste of time even thinking about it in windows... Basically you want it running in Linux, preferably on Gigabit ethernet for it to be anywhere near effective. It can be done on 100 Megabit ethernet, but that becomes the bottleneck. The biggest cluster in New Zealand is run by Massey University which you can read about here. (iims.massey.ac.nz) Even this fairly large cluster is only 1/29th the size of NZ's largest computer housed at Niwa in Wellington. |
whiskeytangofoxtrot (438) | ||
| 138362 | 2003-04-24 04:35:00 | The problem is to get a problem which can use the N processors. Any off the shelf programme won't. Building cheap supercomputers has been done. Waikato University have recently bought one. Look for "Beowulf" in Google. (Or "Stone Soup". :D ) |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 138363 | 2003-04-24 04:36:00 | Err that link again: IIMS Cluster @ Massey (iims.massey.ac.nz) Lack of editing on this forum :( |
whiskeytangofoxtrot (438) | ||
| 138364 | 2003-04-24 04:38:00 | And even then, as Godfather said, it doesn't work via a network. I don't actually know anything about the hardware side of it, just that some of the versions of Windows Server support load-balancing and clustering. If you still want to do it, and want to stick with Windows (very expensive, trust me, Datacenter Server is top-of-the-line, very expensive, requires much more grunt etc), take a look at www.microsoft.com as I'm sure I've seen diagrams somewhere there. |
agent (30) | ||
| 138365 | 2003-04-24 04:39:00 | And the Cray at Niwa (www.niwa.cri.nz) | whiskeytangofoxtrot (438) | ||
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