The Logic Off Topic list

--- In logic-ot@y..., "mike_harper98" <mike_harper98@h...> wrote:
> http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/cgi-
> bin/getframeletter.cgi?/2002/07_jul/features/cw_macvspc2.htm
[ 
http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/2002/07_jul/features/cw_macvspc2.ht
m ]
> 
> says it all

Interesting to see that adding a second processor does not seem to 
give anything like double the processing power -- whereas if the 
processing could be spread over a network, and you had two single-
processor machines you really would get twice as much power. 
And because the two-processor machines are "premium" products, they 
probably cost more than twice as much as two bog-standard single-
processor machines with the same processor.

And of course, with three cheap networked machines, or four ... 

The sticking point here would be that the software developers would 
have to allow a single user to run multiple copies of their app over 
the network without adding too much to the cost, and would have to 
implement some sort of load-sharing. So if you have a big rendering 
job with two machines, the second one runs in sync with the same 
data, renders half the frames and passies them to the main machine. 
With three machines, each one does a third of the job, and so on. 


I notice that with Native Instruments' "Reaktor" audio processing 
monster, they do talk about networking options, and apparently have 
produced some sort of multi-machine communication standard for 
distributed processing, which at the moment (apparently) just works 
with Reaktor. /Apparently/ you can have a second machine running a 
second (much cheaper) site license, and the two will talk to each 
other. Native Instruments are also talking about the possibility of 
special network licenses.

I didn't notice the article mentioning the G4' main memory speed -- 
presumably the G4's twin processors were still struggling with single-
speed 133 memory, and the two fast PCs were using the double data 
rate jobbies?
I'd be interested in seeing a benchmark of similar machines with DDR 
vs single speed memory, with single and double processors.

=Erk=