What is this?
<a href="http://www.skycomputers.com/hardware/merlin.html"; target="_blank">http://www.skycomputers.com/hardware/merlin.html</a>;
So how do they get these bandwidth elements from a G4 (7410) processor. Or am I just totally clueless about something here?
So how do they get these bandwidth elements from a G4 (7410) processor. Or am I just totally clueless about something here?
Comments
They claim 16 gigaflops. And looking at that picture, I think I see 4 G4s, probably all at 1 GHz.
I don't get it - this company has the ability to get MODERN hardware in their machine.... why isn't its benchmarks better?
<strong>
They claim 16 gigaflops. And looking at that picture, I think I see 4 G4s, probably all at 1 GHz.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Read, folks.
4096 CPUs on 256 cards. That's 16 CPUs per card, thats 1 gigaflop per CPU. Pretty typical for a <500MHz G4.
-ray
667 MB/sec memory bandwidth on each processor
667 MB/sec inter-processor communication
those are more of what looked high to me, don't those seem to be out of the current G4 limits?
I think I am crazy, I just can't see the forest through the tree right now, so I need help.
<a href="http://www.skycomputers.com/applications/applications.html"; target="_blank">http://www.skycomputers.com/applications/applications.html</a>;
Foliage penetrating radar.
Don't look for something called iRadar anytime soon.
D
<strong>Hmm.... the current dual GHz G4 running on hardware that's a few generations behind gets a theoretical 15 gigaflops.
They claim 16 gigaflops. And looking at that picture, I think I see 4 G4s, probably all at 1 GHz.
I don't get it - this company has the ability to get MODERN hardware in their machine.... why isn't its benchmarks better?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Uh, since when was the 7410 capable of 1GHz?
<strong>2.66 GB/sec L2 cache
667 MB/sec memory bandwidth on each processor
667 MB/sec inter-processor communication
those are more of what looked high to me, don't those seem to be out of the current G4 limits?
I think I am crazy, I just can't see the forest through the tree right now, so I need help.</strong><hr></blockquote>
quick refresher...
SDR 64 bit at 83.3 MHz = 667 MB/sec
SDR 64 bit at 100 MHz = 800 MB/sec
SDR 64 bit at 133 MHz = 1066 MB/sec
DDR 64 bit at 133 MHz = 2133 MB/sec (aka PC2100)
current quicksilvers use PC133 (64bit/133MHz), a little less than double the memory bandwidth of the above mentioned servers.
Steve Jobs walks on stage for MWNY 2002, to a round of applause. Talks about how great the company is doing, flat-panel iMac sales are great, eMac sales are great, everyone wants an iPod, etc. Mac OSX 10.2 'Jaguar' will be shipping by the end of the month, a 'free' upgrade, but $20 if you need a CD from apple.
He rolls out the new powermac, 1.2Ghz dualies on the top end, same quicksilver case, but comes with firewire2. Does yet another lame photoshop bakeoff, only this time competing against Intel's latest P4 and an AMD Athlon. The G4 handily trounces both rendering the movie poster for Lord of The Rings 2: The Two Towers.
Steve pauses for a second, and makes like he's going to walk off stage. Then he turns towards the crowd, who are all on the edges of their seats in anticipation. He smiles and says "Well, ... There's just one more thing". Mac enthusiasts everywhere being to sweat even more. Steve begins talking about how the Mac is prominent in so many areas, scientific research, video editing, becoming very popular with consumers...
"Coming to your new Macintosh G4 computer at the end of this keynote, is the new iApp you've all been clamoring for: iMilitary. With iMilitary software you'll be able to do your own Missile simulation. Don't like that your neighbor blasts horrible music all night when you really just want to hear 'Love Shack'? Get a picture of his house and your G4 will render a missile, fire that missile at his house, and then show you within 99% accuracy what his house would look like after a missile hits it! We've also added a Navy Sonar option, so those of you with a satellite on your house, or with our new iSonar iDevice, will be able to detect incoming enemy submarines .... IN REAL TIME!"
"Now, the competition is at least two years away from its own military simulation software, but ours is shipping ... Today! Available on the apple site at 5pm EST, or you can order a CD from the apple store for $69..."
Steve leaves to a round of confused but polite applause. A reporter turns to his mac-geek friend and says "Um ... so is it a real missile, or just a simulation?"
This is a good indicator of how a massive computaional system would work out. One of their systems with 64 daughter cards has 1024 processors. I think they implied that 4 units could be connected together(4096 CPUs). Mind you each unit is the size of a refrigerator.
The performance of this system isn't stellar numaricly by consumer standards. But, this system has been ruggedized and is probably extremely reliable. They trade off being top performance. They are installing these in P3 Orions. Flying military missions in all weather conditions. That would be like trying to do a long file write on an iBook while riding one of the new super thriller rollercoasters at your favorite theme park. If you didn't shake the battery loose, the task would probably error. This thing could do it and 1000 other things concurrently.
If you were installing something like this in a radiation shielded climate controlled computer lab, then ya, break out the top end CPU's crank up the bus speed and wind that sucker out to max.
<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-941540.html"; target="_blank">Mac OS X getting tested by the gov't spooks</a>
[ 07-03-2002: Message edited by: CodeWarrior ]</p>