3.1.1 Principal Specifications

Video controller The video card converts digital signals from the processor into analog signals suitable for driving a video display. Modern high end video cards contain powerful on-board processors and often have many megabytes of memory and sophisticated programmable interfaces. Such a card might be appropriate for an I/O, or interactive node intended to drive a high resolution monitor for data visualization and interactive display. Other Beowulf nodes, however, have little need for video output. In fact, if it were not for the fact that most BIOS software will not boot without a video card, they would be unnecessary on the majority of Beowulf nodes. Video cards are available with either PCI or EISA connections.
Network interface controller This provides communication access to the node's external environment. One or more such interfaces couples the node to the Beowulf's system area network. A second network interface card (not shown) on a worldly node can provide the link between the entire Beowulf machine and the local area network that connects it to other resources in the user's environment such as file servers, printers, terminals, and the Internet.
Power supply Not part of the logical system but the power supply is an important component to the overall operation. It provides regulated output voltages of 5 volts, -5 volts, 12 volts, and -12 volts to support system operation. Power supplies are rated in Watts and have a general range of between 200 and 400 Watts per node.
3.2 Processors
The microprocessor is the critical computational component of the PC-based node and Beowulf-class systems. In the five year period since the first Beowulf was completed in early 1994, central processing unit (CPU) clock speed has increased by a factor of 8. More impressive is the single-node floating point performance sustained on scientific and engineering problems which has improved by a factor of 40 or more during the same period. A single PC today outperforms the entire 16-processor first generation Beowulf back of 1994.
With the proliferation of Linux ports to a wide array of processors, Beowulf-like clusters are being assembled with almost every conceivable processor type. But primary attention has been given to Intel processors and their binary compatible siblings from AMD and Cyrix. Recently, the DEC Alpha family of processors has also been effectively applied in this arena.

 



How to Build a Beowulf
How to Build a Beowulf: A Guide to the Implementation and Application of PC Clusters (Scientific and Engineering Computation)
ISBN: 026269218X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 1999
Pages: 134

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