ClusterMonkey.net: Recently, I did some benchmarking using Intel Pentium D® processors and gigabit Ethernet. The data are pretty impressive. If I were a non-technical person, I would probably say, Pentium D kicks ass, but you know, I like numbers and have a professional reputation to uphold. Therefore, in a professional sense I can say, Pentium D really kicks ass. To prove my point, this article presents some of the highlights from a recent white paper I prepared for Appro International called Achieving High Performance at Low Cost: The Dual Core Commodity Cluster Advantage. For a more complete description of the tests and results (including benchmark numbers) you probably want to download the white paper.

Back In The Day

Back when clusters started stirring up trouble in High Performance Computing (HPC) world, there were those that said things like, there is no way commodity hardware can stand up against real iron, or you cannot build a real supercomputer from PC parts. We all know how that turned out.

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