Calvin College duo creates cheap, portable supercomputer
By Darren Murph 
posted September 2nd 2007 9:29AM
posted September 2nd 2007 9:29AM
Just months after scientists were able to run a quantum computer simulation on an everyday PC, we're now hearing that a Calvin College student / professor tandem have created an inexpensive, portable supercomputer for crunching massive chunks of data on the go (and on the cheap). Dubbed Microwulf, the wee beast is hailed as a "machine that is among the smallest and least expensive supercomputers on the planet," and when not being checked as baggage on a flight, can reportedly process 26.25 gigaflops of data per second. The system itself touts "four dual-core motherboards connected by an eight-port gigabit Ethernet switch," and when initially constructed, it cost just $2,470 to build. Talk about a solid price-to-performance ratio.[Via Slashdot]
This is pretty cool. Great Job! It would be interesting to compare this with a dual quad Intel setup. See how they stack up to each other.
That's all that this really is. I know a lot of people in this thread seem to be really impressed with this, but Beowulf clustering has been around for a number of years as anyone familiar with Linux knows. There really isn't anything new here, except that they mounted the motherboards onto both sides of a polycarbonate sheet. The actual hardware is just your standard AMD Athlon 64X2 dual core CPU on each of the four MSI MicroATX motherboards. Interconnect all four motherboards with a gigabit ethernet, make the boards boot up Linux via the network and run the Beowulf clustering software and you have an 8 core so called 'supercomputer'. I guess what I'm trying to say is that anyone with a couple of grand and basic PC building knowledge can build one of these things at their house.
I agree that he hasn't done much in terms of innovation, however, I like the publicity this story brings to the idea of budget super computing. Although you and I may both have a knowledge of this type of technological implementation, a large majority of people remain completely oblivious to it, and who knows it might just get a few more computers out of the garbage and into the computer lab where they belong.
is it just me, or does no one seem to realize that we are talking about gigaflops here... not teraflops
ya I finally got that and felt sad inside.
but it would still render 3ds max/maya stuff better than a circa pentium pro 200....
it's all relative.
Funky. But not pretty. Really not pretty. He shall put it in an 8" cube. Or at least shorten the cables, what a mess!
wonder if it reencode AVC 1080p in real time that be nice machine for encoding
If I made be allowed to make a really bad pun, this is quite the "Calvin Coolage."
Incidentally, the concept that they would need to bring this to England when they go there to do calculations is a bit insulting, they do have computers in England after all, amazingly.
Perhaps they can somehow run an educational program on this setup to teach the Americans geography and history and perhaps spelling ;)
Oh and since this thing has no enclosure it's not FCC legal and it can't be operated in the USA and probably not in the EU either.
Where my giggas at?
So 4x2 = 8. Mac Pro, anyone?
On the other website about this they added:
"Update: As of Aug 1, 2007, Microwulf can be built for $1256, improving its price/performance ratio to less than $48/Gflop. See the Cluster Monkey article above for the details."
The stereogram behind the guy... that's a tyrannosaurus and a pterodactyl! =)
Finally a computer that can run crysis.
"a) beowulf clusters already exists, so building another is not innovative, b) cheap does not equal innovation, c) at least I gave partial credit on small form factor. I still don't see your point."
I agree.
"Over twice as fast as deep blue and $5 million less? Awesome."
no its not 2x as fast as deep blue. The ratio price/performance may be 2x better, but it is NOT faster than deep blue.
"How much RAM did the PS3 have again? 640KB?"
LOL
"It would need 13 PS3s and that would be 3x their budget. Yes, the PS3 is powerful but the point here was that he built a scaled supercomputer with inexpensive parts and clustered it. Way to go! now, solve bureaucracy with it!"
Don't comment before you understand what this is talking about. Teraflops are different from Gigaflops LOL.
"That's all that this really is. I know a lot of people in this thread seem to be really impressed with this, but Beowulf clustering has been around for a number of years as anyone familiar with Linux knows. There really isn't anything new here, except that they mounted the motherboards onto both sides of a polycarbonate sheet. The actual hardware is just your standard AMD Athlon 64X2 dual core CPU on each of the four MSI MicroATX motherboards. Interconnect all four motherboards with a gigabit ethernet, make the boards boot up Linux via the network and run the Beowulf clustering software and you have an 8 core so called 'supercomputer'. I guess what I'm trying to say is that anyone with a couple of grand and basic PC building knowledge can build one of these things at their house."
AGREED.
"It's big and it is ugly. Your average gamer could build a nicer, faster and smaller machine for the same price. "
Exactly
"Okay, I must be missing something. Near as I can tell this is a modestly impressive packaging story. They haven't done anything in terms of tools development or architectural engineering.
Yawn ...."
Yup. he just put 4 crappy computers into a ****ing ugly custom case and installed beowulf.
"When's the last time you (or any of us) actually built a Beowulf cluster, as opposed to using them for jokes? This system is reliant on the shared power of multiple computers processing cooperatively. Simple, and I (hope) you know how that goes. The innovation comes from a) tying together modern mobos in a beowulf cluster, b) doing so on the cheap, c) doing so in a wonderfully compact form factor. Another key here is that this is a student's research [endeavor], so give the kid some credit for doing something that you haven't."
I built a Beowulf cluster recently. All beowulf clusters are "reliant on the shared power of multiple computers processing cooperatively" lol. Making a modern Beowulf cluster is not innovation. I did it...before him...and I got the computers for free. They are made from reliable but cheap parts :D that my dad's company gave us. He built it with compact form factor; he should be a case designer. Another thing: this is a student's research endeavor, but he hasn't done anything I haven't. I have built a custom case, multiple computers (incl. servers), and beowulf clusters.
The point I'm trying to make here is that I'm younger than him. I'm not even in college. I just finished freshman year at high school. I made a beowulf cluster.... last summer when I was 14.
So stfu.
[All beowulf clusters are "reliant on the shared power of multiple computers processing cooperatively" lol ]
I defined the functionality of beowulf clustering for the sake of those who may not be familiar (it's a gadget site, not an exclusively computer-tech site, regardless of the obvious overlap)
[I built a Beowulf cluster recently.]
whee. good for you. me too. I donated it to my school to host sites for student organizations that needed dynamic content hosting and heavy transactional (non-monetary) processing.
What's yours do?
Why the heck don't they use Core 2 Duos? The computer would be much faster with, say, an E6600, and would only cost $40 more for each processor.
If you go all out... perhaps use four QX6850s! 16 cores!!!!!!!!!
For the record: This computer does 26 GFLOPS = 0.025 TFLOPS
Deep Blue did 11.38 GFLOPS and was the 259th fastest supercomputer in 1996 (the fastest supercomputer in 1996 was capable of 368 GFLOPS).
The current fastest supercomputer is apparently IBM’s Blue Gene/L capable of 280 TFLOPS; although, a new version cable of 1 PFLOP (=1000 TFLOPS) is apparently due to go online sometime this year.
AMAZING how far we have come.
(all this info from Wikipedia of course)
Well we at least know where he got his inspiration for his haircut!
Magic eye and monty python
Unfortunately, it being Calvin College, the machine will only be used to talk to Jesus and make the atheists pay for their sins.
The real question is "Will it run Flight Simulator?"