[ale] Dual core CPUs in cluster?

[Michael Still]

On 4/26/05, Dow Hurst <Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com> wrote:
> Anyone have advice on whether there are issues with parallel
> applications in a dual core vs single core cluster environment?  I have
> an option of getting dual core 275 Opterons vs single core 248
> Opterons.  Will be using the Ammasso 1100 interconnect for low latency.
> 20 nodes if single core or 14 nodes if dual core based on pricing.  Just
> wondering if anyone has any thoughts?  Main application is NAMD and
> secondary is Schrodinger's Jaguar.  I have access to the NAMD cvs and
> will have Pathscale compilers on the cluster.  Thanks,
> Dow
> 
I think  the general idea is to run OpenMP or multithreaded code on
the local nodes (node here means individual computer, not cpu) while
you use message passing for inter-node communication.  So if your apps
are threaded or utilize openmp then you should be ok with the dual
cpu/core nodes.  I would try to get the vender to send a demo unit to
do some benchmarks. Ideally you would get one with dual core and 2
systems with single core and compare 2 node test.  This won't be a
true scientific test, but an idea of how it will perform.  Better yet
get 2 dual core and 4 single core to compare, that way you factor in
the message passing traffic for the dual core setup.

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