Guest ClintEastman Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 A PROJECT PUT TOGETHER by the NCSA has linked 65 Playstation 2s using the Sony Linux distribution for the console into a powerful cluster. The distribution uses Linux 2.2.1 ported to the Playstation Emotion Engine microprocessor, but the full cluster includes code specifically built to support the "supercomputer". That code includes tools that allow the nodes to work together but the designers point out that practically any software that will build on a Linux mips system will work with Playstation 2 Linux. There's more information and picture of this remarkable project here.
Guest superkingdave Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 i heard that before the war playstation two was not allowed to be exported to iraq precisley because it could be made into a super computer :lol:
Guest Matt Whitfield Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 Been looking at that kind of thing with a friend of mine. The PS2 looked like a relatively expensive option though as you had to buy a Linux kit for each PS2 just to get the Ethernet adapter and it only has 32MB RAM... However the latest US PS2 will lose the firewire port and gain an Ethernet adapter, which would bring the cost of such application down considerably. The same kind of setup is also possible using an XBox and that actually seemed like the more natural candidate for this type of application as it comes with an Ethernet adapter and has 64MB RAM, which is upgradeable (using some imagination) to 128MB. A good spot though Clint... I personally find that kind of thing rather interesting ;-)
Guest ClintEastman Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 A good spot though Clint... I personally find that kind of thing rather interesting ;-) I love this sort of stuff!!! :lol:
Guest Matt Whitfield Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 I can see why the NCSA chose the PS2 for this cluster experiment (don't have to chip it, Linux distribution and drivers supplied by Sony) but an XBox Linux cluster will be the one to watch ;-) However the XBox version would be a much larger technical challenge. First you have to chip each node (annoying), then you would ideally upgade the RAM in each node (difficult) and you also have the problem that the XBox's Linux is a community based project so it's not all handed to you on a plate, a la the Sony Linux distribution. A 65 node XBox cluster would kick the living wotsits out of a PS2 one, but now with the potential of an inbuilt Ethernet adapter the gap maybe lessening in terms of benefit (it cost £30K to build that PS2 cluster, but with inbuilt Ethernet it would be much cheaper). However with more RAM the practical applications of an XBox cluster may be larger :-D
Guest ClintEastman Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 There is a way to run linux on an xbox WITHOUT a modchip so they say.... THE XBOX IS ONLY a few short steps away from becoming the LinuXbox. We reported on the 007 Xbox hack a short while ago. Now someone has written a step-by-step guide to making your Xbox switch to Linux without a mod chip. Let's be fair here and get the nasty bit out in the open straight away: there is some soldering involved. But it's easy soldering, just connecting two sets of jumpers together. And it means you can flash a new BIOS onto the machine. We caught sight of the links on Slashdot and have given the tutorial a quick once over. It's all fairly straight forward though definitely not for the faint of heart. There're quite a few things in there that caused a wince, such as hot plugging IDE drives. But it all looks like it will work. The relentless hacking of the Xbox can have only one final outcome. Sooner or later the system is going to be well and truly hacked. It can only be a matter of time before LinuXbox is a reality. µ :lol: :D
Guest Matt Whitfield Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 I'd heard about the 007 Xbox hack and was aware that they were trying to distill it. One of the main challenges with building an XBox cluster is the amount of stuff you have to do to prepare each node. Getting Linux onto an XBox with less hassle would definitely be a benefit - although as you can see from that solution you still need to do some soldering and re-flash the BIOS. However, the worst bit is actually soldering in the additional surface mount RAM (4 chips - which even if possible by hand, would be very time consuming), although whether or not this is necessary for all applications or just a nice to have is up for debate... You've then got to face the fact that nobody else has setup an XBox cluster so some custom s/w development is probably in order, or at least porting of other distributed s/w infrastructure. The other issue that one our (currently theoretical) applications is facing is that we may over stress the network part of the equation, which is not so easy a factor to overcome when you have to rely on a built-in Ethernet adapter... However there is another variant on that idea where network bandwidth would not be such an issue ;-) ~completely loses track of his day job again~
Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 I'd heard someone got Linux to boot on an Xbox with no hardmods...
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 Indeed, you can do it with a memory card and a copy of bond...! Mine is chipped to run Linux :lol: See http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/ for full info! P
Guest adam Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 Microsoft MVP...Linux Xbox, is that allowed?
Guest vijay555 Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 I'm surprised the linux brigade haven't already shoe-horned it onto the smartphone. it's flashable, so i guess it's not a million miles away from linux on ipaq, although, people, please: why?! Anyone seen the thing about linux running on the iPod? :roll: However, i can't wait to try microsoft SPOT. When our watches start to slow down because running too many apps, then we'll have as much justification as we need for being late to work! 8) And is it just me, or does the memory chip for Playstation 3 look conveniently and ominously like the CyberDyne's Skynet processor in Terminator... hmm. That's a nice bike. :shock: And God made Xbox Media Player, and saw that it was good. :wink: V http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973...3,987512,00.asp
Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 florin allegedly got Linux to boot on a SPV....
Guest antz Posted May 28, 2003 Report Posted May 28, 2003 There was a thread about Linux/ssh on SPV. However, as far as I'm aware no one has yet managed to connect a Windows SPV to a Linux box..
Guest Matt Whitfield Posted May 29, 2003 Report Posted May 29, 2003 florin allegedly got Linux to boot on a SPV.... Yeah, I'm sure there was a screen shot somewhere but I couldn't find it... Sadly a bit pointless unless you fancy writing all the necessary drivers for it to be able to do anything.
Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted May 29, 2003 Report Posted May 29, 2003 Dunno where my post went...however: No GSM stack either :lol:
Guest ClintEastman Posted May 29, 2003 Report Posted May 29, 2003 If you want Linux on a phone there is always the Motorola A760. Motorola Introduces World’s First Java™ + Linux® Handset Feature Rich A760 combines PDA functionality with phone-First capabilities; Java™ Technology + Linux® OS ecosystem chosen for maximum customization and scalability LIBERTYVILLE, ILLINOIS, FEB. 13, 2003 -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced today the Motorola A760, the world’s first handset combining a Linux Operating System (OS) and Java™ Technology, with full multimedia PDA functionality. The Motorola A760 is designed to offer a rich end-user mobile experience based on the open source OS. Motorola’s leadership in Java technology coupled with the Linux OS, arms mobile developers with an increased freedom to create new Java applications, from games to productivity tools, for smart devices like the A760. The A760 is Motorola’s first handset demonstrating the company’s commitment to making the Linux operating system a key pillar of its handset software strategy. The strategy fosters innovative applications, which helps lead to increased revenue and differentiation opportunities for operators around the globe. The Motorola A760 combines the ideal features of a mobile phone with the capabilities of a personal digital assistant (PDA), digital camera, video player, MP3 player, speakerphone, advanced messaging, instant Internet access and Bluetooth™ wireless technology. Packed into one compact device with a vivid color touch-screen, the Motorola A760 excels in information management as well as communication services to offer the voice, text and entertainment services to help meet the needs of today’s multi-tasking mobile consumer. “This handset is special because it features one of the most open and flexible software platforms that exists,” said Rob Shaddock, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the GSM/TDMA Product Line in Motorola’s Personal Communications Sector. “By supporting the open source Linux OS and Java technology, Motorola is creating the most open and flexible environment possible to help drive the development of compelling applications for rich, customized mobile experiences.” Press Release
Guest ClintEastman Posted July 4, 2003 Report Posted July 4, 2003 Matt your cheap(ish) XBOX supercomputer just got a lot closer!!! http://thecleaner.publication.org.uk/xbxploit.htm (What no mod?) :)
Guest Matt Whitfield Posted July 7, 2003 Report Posted July 7, 2003 Yep, I'd heard about that Clint - that does actually improve things somewhat :-)
Guest XGEOX Posted July 9, 2003 Report Posted July 9, 2003 why? :) maybe this is a stupid question, but what is the point? :? why try and make a supercomputer out of the crappy ps2 (or even worse, the xbox) when you can do it with PCs?
Guest Matt Whitfield Posted July 10, 2003 Report Posted July 10, 2003 why? :) maybe this is a stupid question, but whatis the point? :? why try and make a supercomputer out of the crappy ps2 (or even worse, the xbox) when you can do it with PCs? It depends on the application you want to use the super computer for. The point of using the PS2 or XBox is they have the equivalent of a top end PC GFX card in them so it's cheaper (although in some ways more challenging) to use commodity game consoles instead of PCs. If you want massive real-time rendering performance then consoles are a much cheaper way of getting it.
Guest DamianJauregui Posted July 10, 2003 Report Posted July 10, 2003 And there's me thinking that it was just a way for the NCSA guys to get their hands on some PS2. :)
Guest XGEOX Posted July 10, 2003 Report Posted July 10, 2003 It depends on the application you want to use the super computer for. The point of using the PS2 or XBox is they have the equivalent of a top end PC GFX card in them so it's cheaper (although in some ways more challenging) to use commodity game consoles instead of PCs. If you want massive real-time rendering performance then consoles are a much cheaper way of getting it. ah i c i suppose that makes sense (although i would hardly say the ps2 has the equivilent of a high-end graphics card). hehe - a stack of 60 PS2s could cost in the region of £7800 (say £130 a piece, which is being optimistic). Then you have the cost of networking these together. These guys must have deep pockets :shock:
Guest Mr_Protozoa Posted July 10, 2003 Report Posted July 10, 2003 why? :) maybe this is a stupid question, but whatis the point? :? why try and make a supercomputer out of the crappy ps2 (or even worse, the xbox) when you can do it with PCs? Why not? It's got to be the ultimate irony. Building a super computer from the cheap home system you little sister plays 'Spiro the Dragon' on.
Guest ClintEastman Posted July 11, 2003 Report Posted July 11, 2003 ah i c i suppose that makes sense (although i would hardly say the ps2 has the equivilent of a high-end graphics card). hehe - a stack of 60 PS2s could cost in the region of £7800 (say £130 a piece, which is being optimistic). Then you have the cost of networking these together. These guys must have deep pockets :shock: Their after the GPU but not for graphics..... Streaming Scientific Computing on GPUs;Graphics processors are very fast and powerful. A modern GPU has 8 parallel programmable pipelines running 4-way vector floating point instructions and achieves over 50 GFLOPs. Graphics processors use VLSI resources efficiently because they use data parallelism and carefully orchestrate communication between processors. For these reasons, over the last two decades, graphics processor performance has been increasing significantly faster than microprocessors, with an annual increase in performance rate of over 2.4. A natural question to ask is whether other important algorithms can take advantage of the techniques used to achieve high performance in graphics processors. The Stanford Streaming Supercomputer project, co-led with Bill Dally, is investigating this approach. In this talk I will describe our approach to the problem. First, we abstract the processor as a stream processor. Second, we have developed a high-level programming environment for stream processing called Brook. Brook will run a variety of architectures, including next generation GPUs. Finally, we have evaluated three applications: molecular dynamics, Galerkin finite element codes on triangular meshes, and a multigrid-based fluid flow solver. These algorithms all seem to map well to stream processors. Our conclusion is that it is possible to build much more cost-effective supercomputers for scientific calculations. More Info This does mean an XBOX would be a load better for this. (It's got a nice Nvidia GPU in it) Oh and the full cost of the PS2 setup was $70,000!!
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