Thread: Would someone can tell me the difference between SMP HPC computer and x86 HPC cluster

How To Choice?

I plan to purchase HPC computing system. At present, I have two choice,One is HPC computer with specilal CPU, Such as Sun SPARC-based computer,The other is x86-based computer cluster.

my application is eda,Such as synopsys,cadence.

how can i choice?

A Sun system is not specifically an HPC type system. Yes it is an SMP (Symetrical Multi-Processor) Which basically means it has more than 1 CPU. When you start talking about an x86 cluster that is a different realm all together.

Big difference is scalability. How much data do you need to process and in what time frame?

With a single enterprise class server you have a limit on the maximum number of CPU's available for the application to use. Which in turn means you have a finite growth variable. If your data set is fixed in size and will not grow then this could be a good solution. However if your data set will grow over time you will have to make a compromise that as the data set grows so will the length of time it takes to finish the processing of the data set.

When you turn to the HPC or "clustering" option you can grow the cluster to meet the demands of the data set growth. You don't have that option with an SMP system. Now there is a lot more involved with building and maintaining a cluster than a single system, but that's the trade off.

Then you can enter into the realm of SSI (Sing System Image) clusters. This will present a lot of seperate machines as a single memory/process space. This gives the benefits of a huge SMP system that can grow and works well for applications that cannot be distributed or chunked into smaller pieces.

This is not a simple choice or simple decision. There are a lot of issues that needs to be looked at.

What are the applications that will be used?
What are the requirements of the applications?
What is the expectation of the system?
Growth expectations?