Cheap Supercomputers: LANL has 750-node Raspberry Pi Development Clusters
One of the more esoteric announcements to come out of SuperComputing 17, an annual conference on high-performance computing, is that one of the largest US scientific institutions is investing in Raspberry Pi-based clusters to aid in development work. The Los Alamos National Laboratory's [LANL] High Performance Computing Division now has access to 750-node Raspberry Pi clusters as part of the first step towards a development program to assist in programming much larger machines.
The platform at LANL leverages a modular cluster design from BitScope Designs, with five rack-mount Bitscope Cluster Modules, each with 150 Raspberry Pi boards with integrated network switches. With each of the 750 chips packing four cores, it offers a 3000-core highly parallelizable platform that emulates an ARM-based supercomputer, allowing researchers to test development code without requiring a power-hungry machine at significant cost to the taxpayer. The full 750-node cluster, running 2-3 W per processor, runs at 1000W idle, 3000W at typical and 4000W at peak (with the switches) and is substantially cheaper, if also computationally a lot slower. After development using the Pi clusters, frameworks can then be ported to the larger scale supercomputers available at LANL, such as Trinity and Crossroads.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @03:30PM (9 children)
Times of Israel [timesofisrael.com]
(Score: 4, Touché) by khallow on Wednesday November 15 2017, @03:41PM (1 child)
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @04:47PM
Whoosh!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday November 15 2017, @03:58PM
A hat tip to hot grits.
(if you are young, unafraid and don't-know-what's-about, head to Urban dictionary [urbandictionary.com])
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Funny) by infodragon on Wednesday November 15 2017, @06:34PM (3 children)
When I read Natalie Portman and Slashdot refugees I started imagining Beowulf has something to do with this cluster. That twitch has started up again....
Don't settle for shampoo, demand real poo!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:31PM (1 child)
How is it not a Beowulf cluster?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:19PM
I know. Image that . . .
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Wednesday November 15 2017, @10:53PM
As long as we steer clear of them sharks on the intertubes, we'll be fine!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @04:08AM
Imagine a beowullf cluster of..... what?!!!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday November 16 2017, @01:26PM
The announcement is date 7 nov.
Which means the award has been given likely the 6 nov. Not the remember remember fifth of november, by one friggin day.
Is this the way to say thanks for the V for vendetta depicting of high ranking prelates? Very disappointing.
Account abandoned.