1.21 gigawatts!!
Saw this today (looking for the link as it was posted on a list):
Researchers and staff at USC and UCLA have achieved a milestone for cluster computing and the Macintosh platform, achieving 233 Gigaflops on a Macintosh cluster. Using AppleSeed software, a project begun by UCLA physics researchers in 1998, researchers found no evidence for an intrinsic limit to the size of a Macintosh cluster, indicating that “Mac clusters have excellent potential scalability.” The tested environment included 56 dual-processor G4/533s and 20 dual-processor G4/450s connected via a large 100BaseT switch.
Wow. Now if I could only get a lot of cash and a programmer to implement that, I’d be in heaven.
January 12, 2002 at 7:01 PM
<a href="http://daugerresearch.com/fractaldemos/USCCluster/USCMacClusterBenchmark.html" rel="nofollow">What's interesting</a> is that they did it under OS 9. I wonder what the benefits/trade-offs would be under X. I figure the plus column would come out ahead.
January 12, 2002 at 11:14 PM
Thanks for the linkage there. Hmm. OS X could only make it swankier. OS 9 is such a bad OS in comparison it's not even funny. i hate working in 9 now that i'm used to X. i should have waited until more apps were ported.
January 13, 2002 at 12:35 AM
I know what you mean -- I actually find myself using BBEdit more than Dreamweaver now just because the former doesn't require me to boot into Classic and lose the interface. At least GoLive is almost out.
I switched to X in September and basically went into Entourage withdrawal until I received my copy of Office X in fucking December.
Next horizon: more Cocoa instead of Carbon apps. The difference in performance is always apparent and amazing.
January 13, 2002 at 12:46 AM
I've been in Palm withdrawl myself. I was overjoyed when the X version beta came out, only to learn that NONE of my conduits will supposedly work. I haven't tried forcing the issue, mainly because i don't want to screw up my data. And of course, Microsoft is going to post it as soon as it's available.
Right.
I need early access to all this stuff. I'm a dangerous early beta boy. I find bugs. In hind sight, maybe a computer engineering degree would have been a better choice. I could be beta-ing my own software right now.
January 13, 2002 at 5:17 PM
meticulous nmd renderfarm, anyone? =)
I thought about building a small renderfarm for my pad one time. Then I realized that in addition to the $$$ needed to buy the hardware, the noise and (more importantly) the electric bill would kill me. Still, having to attempt to talk over the noise of 10 dual Athlon boxen would be a nice problem to have. :)
January 14, 2002 at 3:46 AM
AH! mac's still suck :) now what would be cool is a firewire farm full of those new iMac's all over your damn wall, mounted sideways so all you can see is the monitors side by side - one big ass round chair with three foot pedals that is actually a laser mouse - a wide open floor and a lot of free time. oh, and chicks, lots of chicks.