[CentOS] Desktop Supercomputer

Whit Blauvelt whit at transpect.com
Sat Jul 17 21:44:25 UTC 2010


On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 03:01:32AM +0530, Rajagopal Swaminathan wrote:
> 
> On 7/18/10, Jerry Franz <jfranz at freerun.com> wrote:
> > Everything you listed is interactive realtime or near-realtime graphics
> > intensive. A cloud is not really suited to that kind of task to begin
> > with.
> 
> I don't inderstand why it should be so.
> 
> How does the online gaming work? and who renders it?

This is where what you don't know is hurting you. Online gaming works
because the gamers have computers - whether PCs or game machines - with
considerable resources. It will not work to a dumb terminal or thin client. 

> > And you appear to be additionally attempting to find out if you
> > could use an *existing* cloud (for example Amazon EC2) to do it -
> > meaning not only are you talking about an architecture that isn't really
> > suited to the problem, you are talking about putting it behind *SLOW*
> > network connections to boot.
> 
> Agreed, as EC2 performance as limited by last mile speed. But Then why
> should I be limited by something which is hosted not in India?

It's the "last mile" to the client that matters. Where the hosts are isn't
the problem or the solution.

> > Never-mind how *fast* a cloud is (or is not), you can't move the
> > rendered bits back and forth to a desktop over a remote network
> > connection at any kind of sane speed.

> 2. Why should Indian universities and its students be denied such a
> computing facility despite having fibre speed connectivity within
> campus/area?

What is this, a social justice argument? If you want good computers for
students and house holders, go to One Laptop Per Child. If you want good
computers for university students, give them a budget to get ahold of the
parts and build their own. You can build an incredibly powerful system, for
local use, for very little money, even in rupees.

> I am clear that it is a technological possibility (rather, more of a
> probability).

So is doing this all with quantum-computing nanomachines hovering invisibly
in the air around us. However let me say with considerable confidence that
those won't run CentOS. And if they form a cloud, it will be totally unlike
any cloud we know today.

Whit



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