This is something I ran across: a DIY Windows supercomputer. The article's about 4 years old, hence no news post. Logically, there's no reason why Windows can't be a supercomputer OS, but most of us don't think of it like a Unix-derivative like Irix.
Ok... Lets say the windows GUI (whats it called anyway?) takes 1% of the system's resources when its doing SFA (sweet f*** all) Lets also say we have a cluster of 20 nodes (computers), 1.5Ghz 256MB RAM. This means that 0.3Ghz (1.5GHz/100*20 machines = 0.3Ghz) and 51.2MB (256MB/100*20 machiens) of Ram are doing SFA for the cluster... If this cluster had 100 nodes, then in effect an entire machine would be doing SFA for the cluster. Repeat After Me, you do not need a GUI on a cluster node, you do not need a GUI on a cluster node, you do not need a GUI on a cluster node, you do not need a GUI on a cluster node... you dont really need it on the Master Node, just ftp / ssh & rysnc. [ot] I wonder if my college will let me cluster the computing rooms.... [/ot]
