[mpich-discuss] General Scalability Question - correction

[Hiatt, Dave M]

Linux defaults to 1024 sockets!   Sorry.

-----Original Message-----
From: mpich-discuss-bounces at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:mpich-discuss-bounces at mcs.anl.gov]On Behalf Of Robertson, Andrew
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2009 10:30 AM
To: mpich-discuss at mcs.anl.gov
Subject: [mpich-discuss] General Scalability Question



Folks,
Our IT staff is not particularly knowledgeable about parallel computing. Their current upgrade plan centers around quad/quad or dual/hex boxes which would have 16 or 12 cores respectively. I have no doubt that such a machine would run a parallel job efficiently. My question is how well can I harness multiple boxes together?

The applications are all CFD (FLUENT, GASP, STAR, VULCAN). I am talking to the various software vendors about this but would like some info from the programming community.

Assuming the same memory per core am I better off with

High core count (12-16) boxes on a gigabit switch
Lower core count (2 -4) boxes on an infiniband switch.

I understand that if I configure mpich correctly it will use shared memory on the mutli-core multi-processor boxes. If I end up with the high core count boxes, should I spec the frontside bus (or whatever it is called now) as high as possible??

I also have concerns that a single power supply failure takes out more cores, though perhaps that is not such a problem

Any information is greatly appreciated


Thanks
Andy
--------------------
Andrew Robertson P.E.
CFD Analyst
GASL Operations
Tactical Propulsion and Controls
ATK
77 Raynor Avenue
Ronkokoma NY 11779
631-737-6100 Ext 120
Fax: 631-588-7023
www.atk.com<file://www.atk.com>

!! Knowledge and Thoroughness Baby !!


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