Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 6, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted June 6, 2011 "leaked" info: http://fudzilla.com/processors/item/22808-...bulldozer-specs That would be a lot of NetRender Nodes on one machine, but we'll need a motherboard with serious RAM space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 6, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted June 6, 2011 I guess this ASUS is the first motherboard out for the AMD "Bulldozer" CPU http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=30606 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 7, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted June 7, 2011 PR saying $290 and $320 for the 8-cores http://www.techspot.com/news/44130-amd-off...processors.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 7, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted June 7, 2011 120 cores, now on sale for a mere $34,997.00... http://www.boxxtech.com/products/RenderBOX...mtcEmail=626125 Has anyone ever been around something like that? Do all ten units appear as one windows computer or is it like 10 separate computers networked? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeSlice Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 From looking at that picture, it looks like each node has separate VGA and network ports, so each one probably has its own motherboard, so I am guessing it is more like 10 separate computers networked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 14, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted June 14, 2011 If A:M can be successfully re-coded to use OpenCL for its significant doings you might be able to plug in a GPU computing card such as this (~$2500) to get the throughput of that $34,000 render farm mentioned above: Here is a demonstration of a scientific analysis app using 1 CPU, 8 CPUs and a GPU (a mere $400 NVidia card). (Before you get too excited, remember they are showing a very advantageous best-case in their demo, an app that only has to do one thing to do what it does. A 3D app like A:M has to do many different things at different times to do what it does, some of which may not be doable with OpenCL, all of which complicates the task of using OpenCL in A:M.) Steffen is working on it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 Steffen is working on it... Great news! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuchur Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 Some of you might ask why we aren't using GPUs for the whole computer and get rid of the "old" CPUs... The answer is easy: Both are dedicated to different tasks. A CPU is not very fast when running the same calculation over and over again. That means, if you need to compute 6000000 Commands of the same kind it is very ineffective. -> That is what we are doing! However when it comes to changing between different commands and not so much repeative commands, the CPU is faster again. CPUs are more like moderators / commanders and have to see the whole task, while GPUs which make heavy use of Multithreading are more like the detail-guys. So what is OpenCL? OpenCL is a command-instruction-set which is dedicated to use multithreading which is very effective using the GPU but can although help speeding up things for the CPU. When OpenCL is used in the right and suitable way calculation-speed is up to 14 times faster then the CPUs. (this is a more or less pessimistic number from Intel, which doesnt like the fact that their CPUs are slower.) HOWEVER: Creating a 3d-image is not one task repeated 100 000 000 times but although a few changes inbetween. So we can't expect a performance-boost of 14x of it. Anyway: It could boost the rendering-performance quite a lot! Just my two cents on the subject... See you *Fuchur* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 18, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted June 18, 2011 For those who are GPU computing curious, this Amazon preview of a book on the subject has a fairly cogent explanation of some of it... http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Massivel...ader_0123814723 click on "first pages" then scroll down a page to "GPUs as parallel computers" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason1025 Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 This is why I requested that Net render have the ability to utilize a single computer with 15 cores Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted August 23, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted August 23, 2011 Some leaked slides regarding AMD's new 8-core CPU, full of technical details which are nearly meaningless to me... http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-bulld...-am3,13272.html "Zambezi" they are calling it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted September 2, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted September 2, 2011 More AMD 8-core news... Exclusive: AMD's First Bulldozer Chips Arriving Sept. 26 at the end there's this... Designed for enterprise-class two-socket and four-socket servers, the Opteron 6200 series CPUs will give way in 2012 to chips codenamed Terramar—some sporting a whopping 20 Bulldozer cores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted September 8, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted September 8, 2011 It's a bit unclear what exactly they are releasing but it ha up to 16 cores! AMD starts shipping "Bulldozer" cores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMZ_TimeLord Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 Cool, that means that the Phenom II prices will continue to drop and we can make our own render farms for cheap. I have a six core Phenom II and these things are mad fast to begin with. But, we could even utilize previous gen four core systems picked up for cheap. (used or new overstock). - Just checked the Processor I have is only about $160 right now. RAM is SOOO cheap right now it's ridiculous. I picked up 4 GB of DDR3 Dual channel RAM for a mere $40 recently. Yes, it was on sale, but the regular price wasn't much more. I'm thinking if you picked the right hardware... i.e. cheap power supplies, base all-in-one motherboards with minimal extras, a strong CPU and plenty of RAM. ... you could easily make a 4 or 6 core render node with 2 GB per core available for a reasonable amount. Really cheap rack system can be made with simple threaded rod. Just stack your motherboards on top of each other with the rod acting as vertical legs. A buddy of mine did that once for a mini-Beowulf he was making. He had four motherboards stacked and the power supplies just sitting on top of each other. With today's modern power supplies having large fans on the 'bottom', just sit each supply on it's side and stack. Once each system is set up, just use remote desktop for access. Set up a small VERY under powered older computer with a RAID card and Linux and you have an excellent file server with no connection limitations, unlike Windows desktop OS. And you don't have to fork out big $$$ for a server version of Windows either. I apologize... I'm rambling on now... Maybe I should write up a better NetRender guide... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted September 8, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted September 8, 2011 Maybe I should write up a better NetRender guide... "Networking for Newbies" would be a great part of that tutorial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMZ_TimeLord Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 Maybe I should write up a better NetRender guide... "Networking for Newbies" would be a great part of that tutorial. I can do that... I'll get started today. Maybe hash can use it in their next version of the technical reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted September 8, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted September 8, 2011 Maybe I should write up a better NetRender guide... "Networking for Newbies" would be a great part of that tutorial. I can do that... I'll get started today. Maybe hash can use it in their next version of the technical reference. Put up an outline of what you might do in the revising TAoA:M section and see anyone has comments about what they need to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertexspline Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 well a network section would be great for newbies and when you have it ready I can always give it a whirl and read and try-- as I know nothing of networking with AM. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 13, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted October 13, 2011 Apparently AMD's Bulldozer 8-core is available for sale now. Tom's Hardware has an extended review 4GHz speeds are attainable with normal CPU coolers and if you happen to have liquid helium around you can get to 8GHz. Sounds like it might be a fine platform for A:M's Netrender! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertexspline Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 saw these on new egg on sale other day --they had some stock 3.1 8 cores in low 200 range not bad for 8 cores a chugging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 14, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted October 14, 2011 reading the review a bit more... it says that two cores share one floating point unit. I'm guessing that would be a negative if you were running 8 NetRenderNodes at once, which i presume are floating point intensive. And in some benchmarks it's underperforming their Phenom II CPUs for that reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuchur Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 reading the review a bit more... it says that two cores share one floating point unit. I'm guessing that would be a negative if you were running 8 NetRenderNodes at once, which i presume are floating point intensive. And in some benchmarks it's underperforming their Phenom II CPUs for that reason. It is less expensive to built and can be easily scaled up by that, but it is not as powerful as a real core which would have its own unit. See you *Fuchur* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted October 14, 2011 *A:M User* Share Posted October 14, 2011 I figure by the time I am stressing the 8 cores I currently have (over 2 machines) to the point that I would need a 16 or 20 core machine, they will already be on to 64 cores. Are we all going to eventually be walking around with teraflop level clusters in our hip pockets? You could make the argument that an iphone 4S is probably equivalent to a high-end workstation from the mid 90s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted November 14, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted November 14, 2011 Here's a first look at AMD's new 16-core Opterons http://www.tomshardware.com/news/interlago...ncia,13984.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertexspline Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Dreams of server board with two cpu slots with 2 16 core cpu's ----now that's a renderers dream. Smiles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason1025 Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Apparently AMD's Bulldozer 8-core is available for sale now. Tom's Hardware has an extended review 4GHz speeds are attainable with normal CPU coolers and if you happen to have liquid helium around you can get to 8GHz. Sounds like it might be a fine platform for A:M's Netrender! Is liquid helium hard to come by? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted November 15, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted November 15, 2011 Is liquid helium hard to come by? Hard to come by? Fun facts... -Helium was discovered on the Sun before it was found on the Earth. -The Hindenburg had to use hydrogen for lift because the Germans had no source of helium. -Even the outer ice planets are too warm to have liquid helium. -Liquid helium is difficult to contain -couldn't find anyone selling it on the web. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted November 15, 2011 *A:M User* Share Posted November 15, 2011 Can't remember where I read this, might have been Popular Science or something - anyway helium is pretty valuable as an industrial gas, and also rare. Apparently we are selling our stockpile of helium (the government had been maintaining a strategic reserve similar to the oil reserves it maintains) and based on current usage, may be extremely expensive in the next 20 or 30 years, since there is no new helium produced. Here is an article that explains it better than I could (may have been where I read it first, for that matter): http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.08/helium.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Del Porte Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Liquid Nitrogen is much cheaper and safer/easier to handle. Any reason LN2 won't work. Neither are sold on the web because both need a special container (dewer) to not boil away quickly at room pressure. Another fun fact: Helium is separated from natural gas. It is produced deep in the earth as a byproduct of natural radioactivity. Alpha particles are the nucleus of helium atoms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejobe Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 my render machine is 32 core but its not really optimized for rendering yet. still dont know how to use netrender. once i get it all "figured out" it will blow anything i used before away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted November 16, 2011 Author Hash Fellow Share Posted November 16, 2011 my render machine is 32 core !!! What have you got? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejobe Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 my render machine is 32 core !!! What have you got? its an IBM mini, not your normal computer. someone was throwing away who deals in very large corporate type computing (banks and etc.) the machine itself usually runs for about $5000-9000 but the software to run on it starts in the range of $50,000-150,000. so i took the machine as is sans software. been working to get it running a unix based version but its not seeing all components yet. each core is rated at 800mhz. it can handle up to 256 processes at one instance. i do have access to a larger machine (that one is amazing. has 600 blades and each blade is a server. each server has 16 cores.) and im working with the guy who runs it to help me get mine running. from what hes saying my machine can handle up to 8 versions of windows XP running at the same time each version having 4 cores dedicated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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