[aclug-L] Re: My Boewulf... sorta

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jonathan Hall <jonhall@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> > Not Beowulf, since you're not using the Beowulf software, but it is a
> > (rudimentary) distributed processing system.
> 
> Yes, that was my concern... although I've not been able to find any
> reference to actual "Boewulf software."  Every instance of a production
> Boewulf I've come across runs different software--usually highly customized
> to the application at hand.

There's beowulf.org or some such.  The software is there, and it often 
sits atop PVM or MPI or some other such technology.

> Although my setup is not distributing a "single" task across multiple
> systems...

It is, the task is the encoding of massive amounts of waveform audio
into MP3.

> Is there a formal definition to a "Boewulf"?  Or are there other formal
> definitions for classes of clusters or distributed computing applications?

Not a definition of "Beowulf"; it's just a program.  Just like
"Notepad" is a program, and not really a definition.

There do exist different kinds of parallel or distributed
architectures.  SIMD, MIMD, etc.

> What does the RC5 (and other distributed.net projects) qualify as?

Massive distributed computing systems.

> I found a much better encoder which not only produces far superior sound
> quality, but encodes at 4-5x realtime on my K6-III.  I doubt it will work on
> your Alpha, though, as it is highly x86-optimized, thus uses much assembly
> language.  :-)

Perhaps under em86? :-)

> Floppy disk tip #5: Data access time may be greatly improved by cutting more
> holes in the diskette jacket.  This will provide more simultaneous access
> points to the disk.

Oooo, going for the BOFH of the year award, are you?

-- 
John Goerzen   Linux, Unix consulting & programming   jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx |
Developer, Debian GNU/Linux (Free powerful OS upgrade)       www.debian.org |
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