On Thu, Apr 12, 2007 at 08:12:20PM +0200, Vim Visual wrote:
> Hi,
>
> my home institute has bought (for me) a cluster of 4 nodes with the
> special-purpose hardware called GRAPE; it's for astrophysical
> simulations. The cards (the GRAPEs) just calculate the gravitational
> forces and accelerate the calculations a lot. In parallel the cluster
> can achieve a peak performance of 0.5 Teraflops.
>
> This is the GRAPE card
>
> http://www.metrix.co.jp/grape6A.html
>
> Now... I'd like to install OpenBSD on the cluster, of course... all I
> need is in the OS. But our IT department is not that happy... they
> want a debian and I'm very crossed.
>
> According to them, there aren't any drivers for the Raid Controller...
> Is that true?
I dunno about the RAID controller, but that overclocked calculator of
yours looks iffy. I don't think its interface library going to work,
unless the library was written in a *very* portable fashion. OpenBSD
doesn't allow random user programs poking random bits of hardware (X
being a notable exception, in most cases).
I'm sure you *could* port the software, but that looks like a lot of
work. And it's not like those boxes will be doing much else than
calculations; just run Debian, isolate them from the net if so inclined
(or allow access only via an (OpenBSD) firewall), and sit at your
favourite OpenBSD spot.
Joachim
--
TFMotD: lpq (1) - spool queue examination program
