The picoCluster

slipperyskip · Post by **slipperyskip** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:31 am

Here is my latest toy.

It is a totally silent, solid state 3-node cluster housed within a six-inch cube.

You can read more about it here:

http://slipperyskip.com/page18.html

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:43 am

Dude, you have far too much time on your hands.

Did I mention you're my hero?

(so these miniscule boards are pure x86? how much does one retail for?)

slipperyskip · Post by **slipperyskip** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:49 am

Thanks!

I do have way too much time on my hands.

They are x86. I get them off ebay for around $75-100.

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:56 am

slipperyskip wrote:They are x86. I get them off ebay for around $75-100.

Gah. I have a feeling there goes this week's salary.

So that enclosure PSU have 120 V input by default? Neat, I think most of them don't... either wall-warts or bricks.

Is it just me, or can you only plug in the power cable when the top of the cube is off?

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:57 am

So many questions! How much heat does it produce? How can it be fast with only 300MHz Geode procs? Don't Compact Flash cards have the problem where you can only write to them a certain number of times?

The gold-plated heatsink on the "third course" is very bling!

slipperyskip · Post by **slipperyskip** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 1:02 pm

Is it just me, or can you only plug in the power cable when the top of the cube is off? Yes. The cover is bling. It will also piss off the UPS guys who seem to make a sport out of destroying my computers when in transit. Keeps the dust off nicely too.

How much heat does it produce? Not much. The PSU is the biggest heat producer because it is running on the edge.

How can it be fast with only 300MHz Geode procs? Cluster performance is dependent more on the number of processors in parallel and the speed of the Ethernet than raw processor power.

Don't Compact Flash cards have the problem where you can only write to them a certain number of times? Yes. Only five million times. lol There are ways around that issue, if it truly is an issue. The CF can be setup just like a Knoppix CD where the drive is read only.

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:40 am

Oh, if you happen to know, how much power does a board like this take? Would it be reasonable to run it off a 12 V DC battery pack?

slipperyskip · Post by **slipperyskip** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 8:24 am

qviri wrote:Oh, if you happen to know, how much power does a board like this take? Would it be reasonable to run it off a 12 V DC battery pack?

Actually the boards run off of 5V only. The only thing I need 12V for is the switch.

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 8:34 am

This certainly is interesting, especially considering I have a SDRAM SODIMM stick kicking around that I could use, too...

Now I only need to make up a project to use this for

slipperyskip · Post by **slipperyskip** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 8:59 am

There are a couple of PCM-5825s on ebay right now. You could try this project:

http://slipperyskip.com/page7.html

epiphane · Post by **epiphane** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 4:19 pm

Damn that's cute!

A work of art

. Nice choice of colors to contrast w/ the metal.

Cheers
Peter

slipperyskip · Post by **slipperyskip** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 4:27 pm

Thanks! You are obviously a man of superb taste.

epiphane · Post by **epiphane** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 4:34 pm

slipperyskip wrote:Thanks! You are obviously a man of superb taste.

Oh..stop already...I bet u say that to all the guys..

cheers

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 4:57 pm

qviri wrote:Oh, if you happen to know, how much power does a board like this take? Would it be reasonable to run it off a 12 V DC battery pack?

Might want to check the manufacturer's specifications on the particular product you're looking at, but my guess would be no more than 5-10w.

I have a Geode GX-533 (400MHz, I think), 256MB DDR, 256MB flash (boots Windows XP Embedded) thin client. During normal usage the computer doesn't pull more than 5-6w from the wall.

BTW, neat work on the cluster slipperyskip.

slipperyskip · Post by **slipperyskip** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 8:11 am

Thanks Frosted!

The picoCluster's power supply puts out 4 Amps on the 5V rail so that is a maximum of 20 watts for use by the boards.