Linux On Steroids: DIY supercomputer software from Sandia

[Faustine]

> On Thu, 9 Aug 2001 00:05:30    Faustine wrote:
Jim wrote:
>>The idea has been around, but not the free software from Sandia.
> The idea has been around and so has software and not just from Sandia. 
> The Scyld cluster software costs $2 for non-commercial use and is
> widely used.  The technology is advancing very quickly, for instance
> Avalon at LANL came in 113 on the Top500 in 11/98 at 48 gigaflops. 
> Systems with say 64 Athlon processors and doing roughly 75-80 gigaflops
> are available pre-built or can be and are constructed by a wide variety
> of universities and corporations (check out the Beowulf list to get an
> idea of the range of applications and the number of large clusters out
> there).  There are many application of cypherpunk-interest for this
> sort of cheap computing power.  Unfortunately crypto probably isn't one
> of them.  It is far easier to increase the size of the key than to
> scale up the processing power in a meaningful way.  Until far more
> efficient factoring algorithms are found the math will insure this
> remains the case.

Yep. I just thought people might appreciate the link. I'd be interested to 
hear from anyone actually running the Cplant to see how it stacks up with 
the other programs out there.. I'll save it for another list, I suppose.


>>Never said it was. 50? try 512.
>>> You never know what might come from putting that kind of
>>> computational power in the hands of people here. Create, break, do
>>> whatever you want.
> The technology is potentially revolutionary in many areas of interest
> to cypherpunks but factoring large numbers is so hard and it is so easy
> to increase the size of keys that crypto will easily stay ahead of the
> Beowulf technology.  

My phrase "interesting possibilities for cryptographic applications" wasn't 
by any means referring to factoring alone.


>Now if someone had a working quantum computer that
> might be a different story.

I wouldn't rule anything out just yet! Fascinating stuff.  And as for the 
problem of it being hard to round up enough Pentiums, plenty of businesses 
upgrading their systems might be willing to donate their old boxes to 
your "good cause" if you find a convincing way to explain what you're 
trying to do. I've been toying with the idea myself on and off for awhile: 
the idea of having your own supercomputer in your basement that you put 
together yourself out of next-to-nothing is just so appealing! Oh well, 
thanks for the links. 

~Faustine.