[geeks] anyone know about this? 72-core, 48GB computer?

[Lionel Peterson]

On Oct 1, 2009, at 3:51 PM, nate at portents.com wrote:

>> Personally, I'd love to see a quad core ATOM (which I assume is in  
>> the
>> pipeline, but that's pure speculation) on a little board that plugs  
>> into
>> a backplane. Then you could do the same thing with processors that
>> everyone knows and loves.
>
> Not in the Intel roadmap.  Intel is not aiming for that market - their
> plans are to get rid of the frontside bus, use a Direct Media  
> Interface to
> IO chips, and integrate a graphics core and memory controller into the
> chip packaging.
>
> It looks like Intel would love Atom to compete against ARM in the  
> handset
> and every other embedded market, which is one of the reasons I think  
> they
> recently acquired Wind River Systems.
>
> What you're suggesting doesn't fit into what I've seen of their plans.
>
>> Of course, you could just buy a bunch of ASUS EEE motherboards,  
>> with a
>> rack type power supply and a 1000BASE-T hub in a cabinet to make a  
>> proof
>> of concept unit. :-)
>
> Rackable/SGI suggested a concept a little more polished:
>
> http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-atom-sgi-molocule-supercomputer,6619.html
>
> But it was just a concept.

There was a DEC Multia MB 'cage' that held like two dozen MBs, all  
powered from a common power supply. Not sure if it was an official DEC  
part or not, but after they were pulled off the market, Starship  
Computing (IIRC) offered them.

Also, this is sort of similar to the Google Server model, based on a  
mod'ed x86 consumer MB which runs on a single DC power source and  
bundles the MB, SATA disk, and a small sealed-lead acid battery/UPS on  
a sled.

Lionel