!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!No need for exclamation on the title!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm definately a sucker for the blinking light phenomena, the modem room at the ISP where I used to work was one of the cooler things I've seen in my life. :)What I'd really like to see is a more easily scalable personal computer platform. Something the size of your standard ATX tower/mini-tower, but make each "drive bay" a module running the full length, with an interconnect ready for every module. Bare minimum would be one processor module (component power of your choice) and a storage module (also internals of your choice). Need more processing power? Slide another processor module in there and click it into place.. The OS detects this and adapts accordingly (Perhaps you'd need to recompile some things.. but seemless would be nice). Need more storage? Slide another storage module in there. Since you'd be able to fit multiple drives into one module, you could have a RAID in one module. Run out of room? Get another case, an interconnect cable to the first case, and start filling it up. swap out old modules as they become obsolete.. Hell, the power supply could be swapable the same way. Sort of a personal mini-rack. One part of this I haven't figured out is exactly how to work graphics.. but assuming you could create the hypothetical super-bus above, you may be able to just add graphics modules as needed.. 2, 3, 4.. Another problem is how well this would scale once that bus was saturated..it would need to be self-adapting in ways I don't think we can yet acheive once it started to get really big.. I think I spend too much time around blade servers :)
Blame that on SGI. For some reason they decided to get in bed with Intel and bet their future that the Itanium2 wouldn't turn out to be a dog. It has cause some problems since there are a lot of code out there that is still 32 bit and a lot of scientific applications that are never going to be ported to Itanium2 (like IDL and Mathlab). There might be an out for SGI at some point to dump Intel for AMD, but with SGI's current financial problems (layoffs just several weeks ago and a new CEO) they are running out of time.
Actually, they do have a pretty big admin staff to administer the 20 systems. It also doesn't hurt that NAS is located at the Ames Research Center which is right across the road from SGI headquarters/engineering.
Intel isn't crap, seriously, don't be such a fanboy. i have an AMD 3500+ in my PC because it is a great budget CPU for gaming, itamium 2 is a good platform for something like this.
Closed AccountMar 20, 2006
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!No need for exclamation on the title!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
deagsMar 20, 2006
440TB isnt that much.... for that many computers ;)
kitsune818Mar 20, 2006
I'm definately a sucker for the blinking light phenomena, the modem room at the ISP where I used to work was one of the cooler things I've seen in my life. :)What I'd really like to see is a more easily scalable personal computer platform. Something the size of your standard ATX tower/mini-tower, but make each "drive bay" a module running the full length, with an interconnect ready for every module. Bare minimum would be one processor module (component power of your choice) and a storage module (also internals of your choice). Need more processing power? Slide another processor module in there and click it into place.. The OS detects this and adapts accordingly (Perhaps you'd need to recompile some things.. but seemless would be nice). Need more storage? Slide another storage module in there. Since you'd be able to fit multiple drives into one module, you could have a RAID in one module. Run out of room? Get another case, an interconnect cable to the first case, and start filling it up. swap out old modules as they become obsolete.. Hell, the power supply could be swapable the same way. Sort of a personal mini-rack. One part of this I haven't figured out is exactly how to work graphics.. but assuming you could create the hypothetical super-bus above, you may be able to just add graphics modules as needed.. 2, 3, 4.. Another problem is how well this would scale once that bus was saturated..it would need to be self-adapting in ways I don't think we can yet acheive once it started to get really big.. I think I spend too much time around blade servers :)
nacksMar 21, 2006
Blame that on SGI. For some reason they decided to get in bed with Intel and bet their future that the Itanium2 wouldn't turn out to be a dog. It has cause some problems since there are a lot of code out there that is still 32 bit and a lot of scientific applications that are never going to be ported to Itanium2 (like IDL and Mathlab). There might be an out for SGI at some point to dump Intel for AMD, but with SGI's current financial problems (layoffs just several weeks ago and a new CEO) they are running out of time.
nacksMar 21, 2006
Actually, they do have a pretty big admin staff to administer the 20 systems. It also doesn't hurt that NAS is located at the Ames Research Center which is right across the road from SGI headquarters/engineering.
rockyrobinsMar 21, 2006
But can it play Solitare?
splitt3rxxMar 21, 2006
Intel isn't crap, seriously, don't be such a fanboy. i have an AMD 3500+ in my PC because it is a great budget CPU for gaming, itamium 2 is a good platform for something like this.