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- Ricapar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+31Because I can.
- Computer_Kid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22If you are into 3d modeling, clustering is great!
- burke, on 10/12/2007, -8/+26"Imagine a beowulf cluster of those!"
</slashdot> - goatrandy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15 I played with this at work for a while a couple of years ago, and it's freaking awesome. It just makes clustering transparent. You don't even have to try, you just install their kernel, and anything that's multithreaded gets distributed around between the boxes in the cluster.
If you're into web-hosting it's the way to go, but it's also useful for alot of other things as well. - unamas, on 10/12/2007, -7/+21Other than the "because I can" factor, why?
- ZaNkY, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10If you want to try this out without modding your kernel or if you don't have Linux: http://www.livecdlist.com/?pick=All&showonly=Clustering&sort=&sm=1
It's a list of Live CDs that are made specifically for clustering. Follow links, Download ISO, Burn, Boot, Supercompute! - burke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10On one hand, this would be extremely cool and cheap (free?), but on the other hand, Holy Jigawatts, Batman! This would draw an insane amount of power. Then again, power's cheaper than hardware.
- AM088, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Old computers are mostly useless, and turning them into one useful machine is pretty nice, IMHO.
- heavensblade23, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Imagine a Beowulf clust....whoops, thought I was on Slashdot for a minute.
- burke, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Actually, it's not technically a distro, but it is a very cool kernel extension.
Here's a distro for you: http://clusterknoppix.sw.be/ - sxtxixtxcxh, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10don't worry... i came in here to say that in case it hadn't been said. +digg for you1
- GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Actually I do. I've got about three of my own boxes around the 800 Mhz mark that I don't know what to do with apart from endlessly reconfiguring them for the hell of it. It could turn those boxes into something more useful than a firewall.
- mikm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7That was the first thing I thought of as well :)
- brucebeh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7this is cool, but i think what would be even better is if this "supercomputer" would work with a windows computer... for example, lets say I used windows and used adobe peremiere, it would be cool to have around 10 LINUX machines help render the actual movie.
probably not possible, but it'd be nice :) - dfunct, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6For all those with Mac's or access to vast amount of Mac's this can all be done using xgrid - hell it'll even run on linux machines if you grab the right scripts.
But in short xgrid is awesome :) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5how friggen sweet would it be to turn a pile of faded xboxs into a 64 node grid computer in your closet. awesome for rendering, awesome for dictionary attacks, and cracking ***** encryption.
ahhh linux, cheap bastard ghetto ingenuity at it's absolute finest. - GhostChe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You could install some render queue management software on these linux boxes like http://drqueue.org which supports after effects, and a ton of 3d rendering software.
here's an older article that talks a little about it:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1847365,00.asp - burke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4As much as I'd like to play the Linux fanboy here, that would actually be very useful, but I think it's highly unlikely it'll ever happen, as it tends to be difficult to port parts of the Linux kernel to Windows ;)
- nhassan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5wow, this is an interesting distro.
- gothelder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Here is some info from the FAQ, and it would be nice if it could have multiple processers attacking the same problem, but apparently not....
"openMosix lets a cluster of computers behave like one big multi-processor computer. However, it doesn't automatically parallelise programs. Each individual process only runs on one computer at a time. For example, if your computer could convert a WAV to a MP3 in a minute, then buying another nine computers and joining them in a ten-node openMosix cluster would NOT let you convert a WAV in six seconds. However, what it would allow you to do is convert 10 WAVs simultanously. Each one would take a minute, but since you can do lots in parallel you'd get through your CD collection much faster :).
If what you need to do is take a single process and parallelise it across multiple machines, then openMosix is probably not the technology you're looking for." - Eleo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This sounds interesting. Actually right now I am trying to do video encoding but my Pentium D 820 can't cut it (fast enough). I've got two Pentium 4 machines collecting dust... Just maybe they can be put to work.
Power's not an issue. My parents can worry about that :) - DD32, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This would be really good in a corporate environment as well, Lets just say the entire department was working on linux, if i understnad this correctly, it would mean that if a single person loads an application that demands the high load, then it can spread throughout the machines available and really speed things up, same goes for anyone else on any of the other machines.
If installed on all the servers, It could mean that if the webserver starts to be come overloaded it could say, start using some resources from non-webserver computer? - burke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well, you could run Linux apps over VNC with a Windows box, but you can't use VNC to split the Windows apps over the cluster, unless VNC technology is vastly awesomer than I'm grasping.
from a different angle though, maybe you could run an emulation of windows with, say, MaYa... mattmichielsen posted "2006-01-23 - Xen + openMosix 2.6.15 released to Developers only".... Xen is like VMware, so that could mean you can actually do it. - mooninite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Cinelerra can do such a thing... check it out.
http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3 - burke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As I understand it, yes, it will split multiple threads over the cluster.
- goffy59, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Ok well whoever says stuff like this is useless, tell that to google. Even if it costs alot, if you want any supercomputer its gonna take up alot of power. Googles computers have more processing power then the "best supercomputer" in the world. And it uses a bunch of old ass computers. They are mostly pentium 4's by now. Anyway... cool and stuff like this does do better for 3D Animation.
- agentbob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think i speak for a good number of us when i say that the computer I'm using now is more powerful than everything I've had before combined anyways... of course i don't have hundred of recent computers lying around
- vixiecron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This sounds interesting and I may try it with my boxen. However, a thought -- are you really gaining enough extra computing power to justify the extra electrical power consumption and waste heat? I doubt these older CPUs are giving you the best processing power per Watt.
A few computer additions would also likely turn my apartment into an oven! I'm sure there's nothing like having the air conditioning on in the winter. - mattmichielsen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"2006-01-23 - Xen + openMosix 2.6.15 released to Developers only"
Awesome. - xenoterracide, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1THIS isn't news. If the 2.6 beta were released this would be news. when are they going to give us a 2.6 kernel release? when 3.0 kernel is released as stable. is the project dead? openmosix is cool... but out of date.
- mikedoth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm surprised there isn't cluster software that can take a single process and let all the nodes collectively share the processing task, especially these days.
- Eleo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What if the program is set up for multithreading? Still a no-go?
- vixiecron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Naaaa. Dogs need food and generate quite a lot of waste heat (and other things) themselves. It'd be better to rely on the power company as they, at least, have some economy of scale working for them.
Besides, unless I encase my entire 800 square foot apartment in a refrigeration unit, I've only made my problem worse. I'll only be creating more waste heat than I remove from the refrigerator, unless that refrigerator violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics. If you know of a fridge like that, let me know -- I want to buy stock in that brand! - GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was think more run the app on the Linux cluster and use VNC in Windows as a simple client rather than splitting a Windows app over Linux.
- burke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, I can't see why that wouldn't work.
- GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1What you need is a supermarket refrigeration storage type setup where you can stick all your headless boxes. Then get a treadmill and a few dogs and use them for a power source.
- GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Could you not use a VNC server to run it from a Windows box. I've never played with clusters so I'm not certain of the full extent of its capabilities.
- synwolf, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Why? Geek penis envy, that's why.
"Don't you wish your PC was a grid like mine...
don'cha...doncha..." - Matt2k, on 10/12/2007, -14/+9"A bunch of old computers" means a handful of Pentium 600 processors. And hooking up and networking a dozen of those sounds a lot harder than buying a single operton chip. You could certainly even buy a dual or quad syystem outright that's more powerful than even that. Not to mention the power requirements.
I know the Linux crowd likes to show off their relics running some 6KB webserver, but stop trying to pass it off as something other than a trick. It's impractical and not useful in the real world. - burke, on 10/12/2007, -12/+6aw come on, that was funny ;)
- prockcore, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1PVM has been around since 1990... talk about old news. Beowulf came out around 94.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -15/+1Hmm...
I don't think a couple of Pentium IIIs and IIs can make me a super computer... - u8myfoood, on 10/12/2007, -24/+3OF COARSE EVERYONE HAS A COUPLE DOZEN OF OLD COMPUTERS LYING AROUND!
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