SiCortex hardware migration

["C. Bergström"]

Hi

There's a very strong chance PathScale will be involved with an effort
to help migrate SiCortex users to more modern hardware.
--------------

Goals
* Better flops/watt - SiCortex was ahead of the curve at the time,
but those machines may be near or EOL
* Same or similar power/cooling requirements - for 2-3 of the
products SiCortex offered (aiming for near drop-in replacement)
* Similar software stack - I can't make promises if you're using
gcc, but we'll make it as easy as possible if you're using PathScale

The timeline I'm hearing is 6-12 months from now for hardware to be
available. Anyone interested please feel free to ping me directly. More
details may be posted publicly in the next 1-2 months and or only
available under NDA.

Thanks

./C

[Dave McGuire]

I'll happily show up on a day's notice with a liftgate truck for any of
that "less modern" hardware. =)

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

["C. Bergström"]

On 04/16/13 12:57 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:
> I'll happily show up on a day's notice with a liftgate truck for any of
> that "less modern" hardware. =)

I suspect some of the machines (larger ones) may get shredded - same
fate as roadrunner
------------
Is there still any market for selling these things? Dave are you
interested in this for your home supercomputer or is there some
educational institutes who would host it?

[Dave McGuire]

I have several home supercomputers, but they're mostly Crays. I'd love a
bigger SiCortex though. (I have an SC072) I am also building what will
eventually be a public museum, which will showcase some supers, but is mostly
early DEC PDP-8 and PDP-11 machines, and hardware of similar vintage.
SiCortex is way too modern to be on-topic for that, but the sheer genius of
the design would earn it a place there anyway. It'd be running on a rotation
with the other machines. (a living museum, not a "dead" one)

-Dave

[Dave McGuire]

On 04/15/2013 02:03 PM, "C. Bergstr�m" wrote:
>> I'll happily show up on a day's notice with a liftgate truck for any of
>> that "less modern" hardware. =)
> I suspect some of the machines (larger ones) may get shredded - same fate as
> roadrunner

...and yes, there are idiots everywhere.

-Dave

[Jason Smith]

Thanks to Jeff Sarlo at the University of Houston... we were able to acquire eight 700MHz SiCortex blades and some memory for our customer's SC5832.  We lost one blade after 4 years from multiple building power fluctuations and have two previously empty slots in the chassis.  Maybe we'll be able to figure out how to fill the other two blade slots, provided we have enough RAM with these new boards.

 

The SC5832 has been the MOST reliable SuperComputer we've had on our floor.  Sure it's slow, but as a user said... "I have over 3000 cores just to myself!"  They plan on running this machine for as long as possible.

 

It's really a bummer the company went under.  Imagine where they'd be today?

 

- Jason

 

On Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 2:34 PM, Dave McGuire <mcg...@neurotica.com> wrote:

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["C. Bergström"]

On 09/16/13 09:16 PM, Jason Smith wrote:
> Thanks to Jeff Sarlo at the University of Houston... we were able to
> acquire eight 700MHz SiCortex blades and some memory for our
> customer's SC5832. We lost one blade after 4 years from multiple
> building power fluctuations and have two previously empty slots in the
> chassis. Maybe we'll be able to figure out how to fill the other two
> blade slots, provided we have enough RAM with these new boards.
> The SC5832 has been the MOST reliable SuperComputer we've had on our
> floor. Sure it's slow, but as a user said... "I have over 3000 cores
> just to myself!" They plan on running this machine for as long as
> possible.
> It's really a bummer the company went under. Imagine where they'd be
> today?

yeah it's too bad, but c'est la vie - What's more of a bummer is that it
would be near impossible for another start-up to take a run at solving a
similar problem. If only the government would stop handing out food
stamps to the propreitary vendors and push more grass root/open
initiatives around high efficiency scientific computing. (I don't
necessarily mean low power/frequency, but trying to push the flops/watt
- improving interconnect efficiencies.. cooling. etc)

[Dave McGuire]

On 09/16/2013 10:16 AM, Jason Smith wrote:
> Thanks to Jeff Sarlo at the University of Houston... we were able to
> acquire eight 700MHz SiCortex blades and some memory for our customer's
> SC5832. We lost one blade after 4 years from multiple building power
> fluctuations and have two previously empty slots in the chassis. Maybe
> we'll be able to figure out how to fill the other two blade slots,
> provided we have enough RAM with these new boards.
>
> The SC5832 has been the MOST reliable SuperComputer we've had on our
> floor. Sure it's slow, but as a user said... "I have over 3000 cores
> just to myself!" They plan on running this machine for as long as possible.
>
> It's really a bummer the company went under. Imagine where they'd be today?

I'd buy their stuff.

I have a "baby" SC072 which I'm only now starting to think of selling.
What a fantastic machine it is.

Is anyone here looking for an SC072? I'd part with it for the right deal.

[Mr Michael Pagel]

I'm interested in tinkering around with all those cores but my right deal probably isn't your 'right deal'.

Maybe though.

thego...@yahoo.com

---

From: Dave McGuire <mcg...@neurotica.com>
To: sicorte...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2013 9:20 AM
Subject: Re: SiCortex hardware migration

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[Dave McGuire]

On 09/16/2013 02:31 PM, Mr Michael Pagel wrote:
> I'm interested in tinkering around with all those cores but my right
> deal probably isn't your 'right deal'.
>
> Maybe though.

One never knows. ;) I'm really quite enamored with the machine, but
the simple fact is most of my stuff is being done on a Tesla these days,
and I have a large tax bill coming due soon. Feel free to contact me
off-list if you'd like to discuss it.