Raspberry Pi "clusterboard"

[Xyzzy]

http://linuxgizmos.com/cluster-platf...mpute-modules/

[ET_]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

http://linuxgizmos.com/cluster-platf...mpute-modules/

[ewmayer]

This sort of thing is what us ARMy-ant compute folks have been waiting for, but 7xPi3, ugh, that's about the equivalent of 14/3 x Odroid C2 or around 2 x Odroid N2. More interesting to me was further down the page:

In a proof of concept collaboration with RaspberryPi.org, Mythic Beasts developed a cluster of 18 Raspberry Pi 4 SBCs. As reported by ArsTechnica, the experimental cluster was deployed to run WordPress on RaspberryPi.org’s RPi 4 launch page. Once the new Raspbian Buster distribution adds netboot support, Mythic Beasts plan to build a new RPi 4-based version of its much larger clusters. Customers will pay a bit more for the RPi 4-driven version of its Pi Cloud subscription service.

Mythic Beasts’ benchmarks showed a roughly 2.5x performance boost for the Raspberry Pi 4 compared to the RPi 3B+. One challenge was dealing with the RPi 4’s higher power consumption. Mythic Beasts says the board has slightly higher idle power draw (3W) and much higher peak draw of 7W, up from 5W on the RPi 3B+. (A newly released VL805 firmware build for the Raspberry Pi USB3 host adapter “should save about 300mW and help the Pi4 to run cooler, which in turn improves performance in compute-intensive tasks,” says RaspberryPi.org.)

In other cluster news, PicoCluster, which sells products such as the $169 Pico 5 Raspberry Pi says it will launch a Raspberry Pi 4 version of its high-power H Pico Cluster models in August. The current Pico 5H model shown above has an 8-port GbE switch, an internal 50W power supply, and a fan for $259.

What's really needed is a clusterboard based on Cortex a72 (Pi4) or a73 (Odroid N2), but with CPUs based on the much-smaller and more power-efficient process of the latter. But clearly a "watch this space" situation, since after taking several more years than early hype had it, the ARM-cluster-server space seems to be heating up.

[Xyzzy]

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/or...ter,40412.html

[a1call]

Why wouldn't supercomputers made of clusters of PCs on any network, say internet work?
What is the difference in the architecture?

Is this just a fancy name for distributed computing such as the @home programs?

Thanks for any insights in advance.

[Uncwilly]

The more tightly bound the CPU's are to each other, the faster things can proceed. For every foot of cable/fiber you have 1 nanosecond of time. If one could cluster CPUs around a solid block of memory that they all could access, the throughput would be much higher than many more CPU's talking together over wires.

[kriesel]

Density is limited by cooling. There have been lots of different approaches tried.