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

• 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

• 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

• 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