Al-salam

Damascus is the working name for the Earlham Computer Science Department's upcoming cluster computer.

At the moment Damascus exists only as a $40,000 grant and a growing list of tentative specifications:

Tentative Specifications

Budget

• $35,000 (leaving $5,000 for discretionary spending)

Nodes

• Intel Nehalem processors
• 4 core processors minimum
  • Six cores still expensive
• 1.5GB RAM per core

Specialty Nodes

• Two nodes should support CUDA GPGPU

Network

• One of the following (in order of cost):
  • Gigabit Ethernet fabric with switch
  • 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric
  • Infiniband

ION Computer Systems Quotation #61116

• 2 ION G10 Server with GPU: 4,972.00 each
  • (2) Intel® Quad-Core Xeon® processor E5530 (2.40GHz, 8MB Cache, 5.86GT/s, 80W)
  • 12GB RAM [Bank 1 of 2: (6) 2GB ECC PC3-10600 1333MHz 2rank DDR3 RDIMM Modules][Smart]
  • Total memory: 12GB DDR3_1333
  • Configure 1 RAID sets / arrays.
  • Seagate SV35.3 250GB, 7200RPM, SATA 3Gb for SDVR 3.5“ Disk
  • (1) NVidia Tesla C1060 w. 4GB DDR3
  • Dual Intel Gigabit Server NICs with IOAT2 Integrated

• 7 ION G10 Server without GPU: $3,697.00 each
  • (2) Intel® Quad-Core Xeon® processor E5530 (2.40GHz, 8MB Cache, 5.86GT/s, 80W)
  • 12GB RAM [Bank 1 of 2: (6) 2GB ECC PC3-10600 1333MHz 2rank DDR3 RDIMM Modules][Smart]
  • Total memory: 12GB DDR3_1333
  • Configure 1 RAID sets / arrays.
  • Seagate SV35.3 250GB, 7200RPM, SATA 3Gb for SDVR 3.5“ Disk
  • Dual Intel Gigabit Server NICs with IOAT2 Integrated

• Networking Fabric
  • None included

• Other stuff
  • scorpion: ION bootable USB Flash device for trouble shooting.
  • 3 year Next Business Day response Onsite Repair Service by Source Support
  • Default load for testing (Service Partition + CentOS 5.3 for Intel64)

• Price tag: $33,173.20

ION Computer Systems Quotation #61164

• 2 ION G10 Server with GPU: $4,972.00 each
  • (2) Intel® Quad-Core Xeon® processor E5530 (2.40GHz, 8MB Cache, 5.86GT/s, 80W)
  • 12GB RAM [Bank 1 of 2: (6) 2GB ECC PC3-10600 1333MHz 2rank DDR3 RDIMM Modules][Smart]
  • Total memory: 12GB DDR3_1333
  • Configure 1 RAID sets / arrays.
  • Seagate SV35.3 250GB, 7200RPM, SATA 3Gb for SDVR 3.5“ Disk
  • (1) NVidia Tesla C1060 w. 4GB DDR3
  • Dual Intel Gigabit Server NICs with IOAT2 Integrated

• 4 ION T11 DualNode: $6,477.0 each
  • (2x2) Intel® Quad-Core Xeon® processor E5530 (2.40GHz, 8MB Cache, 5.86GT/s, 80W)
  • Total memory: 12GB DDR3_1333 per node
  • No RAID, Separate disks (NO redundancy)
  • Configure 1 RAID sets / arrays.
  • Seagate Constellation 160GB, 7200RPM, SATA 3Gb NCQ 2.5“ Disk
  • Dual Intel Gigabit Server NICs with IOAT2 Integrated
  • These nodes are modular. One can be unplugged and worked on while the others remain running.

• Other stuff
  • scorpion: ION bootable USB Flash device for trouble shooting.
  • 3 year Next Business Day response Onsite Repair Service by Source Support
  • Default load for testing (Service Partition + CentOS 5.3 for Intel64)

• Price Tag: $33,054.30

Silicon Mechanics Quote #174536

• Rackform iServ R4410: $11043.00 each ($10601.00 each with education)
  • Shared Chassis: The following chassis resources are shared by all 4 compute nodes
  • External Optical Drive: No Item Selected
  • Power Supply: Shared, Redundant 1400W Power Supply with PMBus - 80 PLUS Gold Certified
  • Rail Kit: Quick-Release Rail Kit for Square Holes, 26.5 - 36.4 inches
  • Compute Nodes x4
    • CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon E5530 Quad-Core 2.40GHz, 8MB Cache, 5.86GT/s QPI
    • RAM: 12GB (6 x 2GB) Operating at 1333MHz Max (DDR3-1333 ECC Unbuffered DIMMs)
    • NIC: Intel 82576 Dual-Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller - Integrated
    • Management: Integrated IPMI with KVM over LAN
    • Hot-Swap Drive - 1: 250GB Western Digital RE3 (3.0Gb/s, 7.2Krpm, 16MB Cache) SATA

• Rackform iServ R350-GPU: $5196.00 each ($4433.00 each with education)
  • CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon E5530 Quad-Core 2.40GHz, 8MB Cache, 5.86GT/s QPI
  • RAM: 12GB (6 x 2GB) Operating at 1333MHz Max (DDR3-1333 ECC Unbuffered DIMMs)
  • NIC: Intel 82576 Dual-Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller - Integrated
  • Management: Integrated IPMI 2.0 & KVM with Dedicated LAN
  • GPU: 1U System with 1 x Tesla C1060 GPU, Actively Cooled
  • LP PCIe x4 2.0 (x16 Slot): No Item Selected
  • Hot-Swap Drive - 1: 250GB Seagate Barracuda ES.2 (3Gb/s, 7.2Krpm, 32MB Cache, NCQ) SATA
  • Power Supply: 1400W Power Supply with PMBus - 80 PLUS Gold Certified
  • Rail Kit: 1U Rail Kit

• Price Tag: $32,478