64 Raspberry Pis + Legos = Supercomputer

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[citation][nom]kronos_cornelius[/nom]Once Nvida comes up with an HSA-compatible Tegra4 chip, I will definitely build my own. This is the coolest project. I will however use a different parallel technique than MPI.A AMD APU-based one is another good option, but the energy saving is the novel reason to be playing around with this technology, so a ARM APU will be necessary before I continue with my version of this project.[/citation]

If you can buy ULV AMD APUs, then they might actually be more power efficient. ARM is low power, not necessarily high-efficiency, although something like Tegra 4 or a quad-core Krait might change that.
 
A leggo interconnect fabric! but really is that a ethernet network connecting the pi? is it fast or gigabit?
 
but there is software to hook up a single cpu to a cluster like this for boosting CGI projects.so by splitting up the project they can speed it up.
 
[citation][nom]NiceSuperPI[/nom]A leggo interconnect fabric! but really is that a ethernet network connecting the pi? is it fast or gigabit?[/citation]

The wiki for them says that the $35 Raspberry Pi only supports 10/100Mb Ethernet, so it's probably Fast.
 
[citation][nom]theabsinthehare[/nom]Erm, why is it only 11Ghz of processing power? 64 x 700Mhz = 44.8Ghz (or 64Ghz if they turn on the turboboost feature)[/citation]

Probably because of networking overhead.


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They forgot to mention that his son actually learned python and wrote some of the code for it, which I just find crazy.

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Why was the first run decided to be calculating pi? That would be a generally linear equation, not really optimized for sixty someodd threads.
 
[citation][nom]ashinms[/nom]Why was the first run decided to be calculating pi? That would be a generally linear equation, not really optimized for sixty someodd threads.[/citation]

I think you'd do it to check if everything is hooked up right and working so to speak.
As the result is a well known number any CPU or Memory defects in the setup would be easily detected.
 
Raspberry Pi a minicomputer? Did someone changed the meaning of the word? Or mini-computer and minicomputer are different?
Like when people talk about desktop, portables, tablets as PC... and the same people blabbing about Post-PC era (portables, tablets, which they also call a PC, btw).
 
[citation][nom]theabsinthehare[/nom]Also, it only has 16GB of memory, not 1TB. It has 1TB of flash storage, which is not the same.[/citation]

Actually Flash, HDD, RAM are all types of memory. Had he said RAM he would have been incorrect.
 
[citation][nom]tanjo[/nom]Raspberry Pi a minicomputer? Did someone changed the meaning of the word? Or mini-computer and minicomputer are different?Like when people talk about desktop, portables, tablets as PC... and the same people blabbing about Post-PC era (portables, tablets, which they also call a PC, btw).[/citation]
The article says "mini-PC", i.e. "mini personal computer", not minicomputer in the old-school sense that I think you're thinking. As for whether the Raspberry Pi counts as a "mini personal computer", I've heard that the CPU core is about on par with a Pentium II from the latter half of the '90s, but that the GPU is roughly on the level of the original Xbox. So, it's not as good as my high-end Alienware from 2000, but it puts up a good fight.
 
[citation][nom]technicalbass[/nom]Actually Flash, HDD, RAM are all types of memory. Had he said RAM he would have been incorrect.[/citation]

You're correct, but that doesn't change the implications of the term. It's too vague to be used in such a way IMO.
 
[citation][nom]madjimms[/nom]You guys are forgetting that 64 cores is pretty efficient in highly parallel apps.[/citation]

That doesn't change the fact that 64 slow cores still aren't necessarily fast, especially with a weak arch, low frequency, single core ARM CPU and I'd be worried about network overhead. This is undoubtedly just something for what the Pi was intended for, teaching, not really a very practical application of the Pi.
 
[citation][nom]kronus[/nom]Isnt this basically what a beowulf cluster is?[/citation]

That's what I was thinking. Most in here seem to be looking at this from a performance point of view.
This is not supposed to be a 'gaming rig'.
Folks, there is an IT universe out there that goes beyond x86 based shooter games and Windows 🙂

And you can not learn parallel programming unless you have the right hardware to play with.
High end clusters are very expensive so this could be a nice proof of concept type setup.


 
Yes Great for learning, now if we could just get the Raspberry Pi people to put Gigabit ethernet on a newer version, things could get fun!
 
The Rasberry Pi has a GPU that is 24 Gflops. So 64 * 24 = 1536 GFlops, or 1.536 Teraflops.

Not really a supercomputer performance wise, but we knew that.
 
[citation][nom]leo2kp[/nom]Overpriced. I spent $2,500 on my gaming rig with 4GHz 6-core, equivalent to 24GHz of "processing power" if you don't include the HyperThreading.[/citation]
I don't know why you got downrated so hard. Don't get me wrong, I'd never spend that much on a gaming box... but the Raspberry Pi is very subpar for this sort of thing. You want something with multiple CPU sockets per board, and 4+ cores per socket, to cut down on storage and memory cost. The less software/OS installs chewing up storage and memory, the better.

It is creative, and neat to look at. But that's about it. A couple of x86 ITX boards lashed together would have produced much better results for less money. So the only thing I can figure is that they were trying to prove that cheap mini-puters are toys and should come in every set of legos.
 
[citation][nom]freggo[/nom]They said the same to the Wright brothers and George Stephenson 🙂[/citation]You're seriously going to sit here and compare this to FLIGHT? A long-time dream of mankind? You're going to tell me people saw the Wright brothers do something long thought impossible, and say "Well that's just stupid who would even want to be able to fly wherever the f*&k they want!"

They might have told them it would never work. But not "Oh there's no practical application for flight."[citation][nom]Johmama[/nom]You aren't supposed to appreciate the power, you're supposed to appreciate the fact that these guys put together these little $35 independent computers and linked them all together to work in tandem to make a more powerful computer. I think it's pretty fascinating.[/citation]If you're not supposed to appreciate the power, don't call it a supercomputer. It would be like strapping a bunch of kids-toy grade RCs together and calling it a race car. Also this is far from the first time someone has done something like this. Ever heard of a beowulf cluster? They've been doing this for a long time.

It is only fascinating or neat because of the "Lego server rack" design, not the actual computing hardware involved.
 
[citation][nom]alextheblue[/nom]I don't know why you got downrated so hard. Don't get me wrong, I'd never spend that much on a gaming box... but the Raspberry Pi is very subpar for this sort of thing. You want something with multiple CPU sockets per board, and 4+ cores per socket, to cut down on storage and memory cost. The less software/OS installs chewing up storage and memory, the better.It is creative, and neat to look at. But that's about it. A couple of x86 ITX boards lashed together would have produced much better results for less money. So the only thing I can figure is that they were trying to prove that cheap mini-puters are toys and should come in every set of legos.[/citation]

He got downvoted because he missed the reason entirely and instead chose to try and show his epeen and his ignorance on the internet. It's a fun project that this man and his son did and is pretty damn cool if you ask me. The point isn't total performance; the point is to make something cool, and I believe they succeeded.
 
[citation][nom]freggo[/nom]That's what I was thinking. Most in here seem to be looking at this from a performance point of view.This is not supposed to be a 'gaming rig'.Folks, there is an IT universe out there that goes beyond x86 based shooter games and Windows 🙂And you can not learn parallel programming unless you have the right hardware to play with.High end clusters are very expensive so this could be a nice proof of concept type setup.[/citation]

damn straight.
 
The distributor in my country, is still waiting for stocks of Raspberry Pi(s) and people here are building a supercomputer with 64 of them! Give everyone a chance people!
 
[citation][nom]alextheblue[/nom]You're seriously going to sit here and compare this to FLIGHT? A long-time dream of mankind? You're going to tell me people saw the Wright brothers do something long thought impossible, and say "Well that's just stupid who would even want to be able to fly wherever the f*&k they want!"They might have told them it would never work. But not "Oh there's no practical application for flight."If you're not supposed to appreciate the power, don't call it a supercomputer. It would be like strapping a bunch of kids-toy grade RCs together and calling it a race car. Also this is far from the first time someone has done something like this. Ever heard of a beowulf cluster? They've been doing this for a long time.It is only fascinating or neat because of the "Lego server rack" design, not the actual computing hardware involved.[/citation]


Actually both Stephenson and thew Wright broters where told exactly that by the military.
Incidentally, people where flying long before the Wright Brothers; even controlled powered flight was done before them. They just received the glory!

If you check my earlier messages you will find a reference to the beowulf cluster in there.
Programming 64 CPUs is obviously a completely different task than doing this for a i5 for example.

The 'Lego' toy allows you to play with massive parallel programming tasks. Not for the raw performance but for learning how it is done. Personally I'd have stuck them in a rackmount type enclosure giving it a bit more of a professional look. But then again, sometimes the odd choice can be fun too.



 
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