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by photochemsyn 1484 days ago
I wonder if having one supercomputer with x number of chips or having eight supercomputers each with x/8 number of chips would be the more practical working setup. Weather forecasting for example is basically a complex probabilistic algorithm, and there's a notion that running eight models in parallel and then comparing and contrasting the results will give better estimates of actual outcomes than running one model on a much more powerful machine.

Is it feasible to run eight models on one supercomputer, or is that inefficient?
2 comments
timbargo 1484 days ago
You can partition a large compute cluster into many smaller ones. Users can make a request specifying how many processors they want for how long. Check out this link to see the activity of a supercomputer at Argonne.

https://status.alcf.anl.gov/theta/activity

And I believe it is more efficient to have a single large cluster. As there are large overheard costs of power, cooling, and having a physical space to put the machine in. Plus a personnel cost to maintain the machines.

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derac 1484 days ago
You can run many programs on one supercomputer simultaneously, yes. Check out XSEDE. Cost-wise one big is going to be cheaper than 8 small due to infrastructure issues - cooling, maintenance, space, etc.
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pphysch 1484 days ago
"XSEDE" proper is getting EOL'd in a couple months and transitioning to ACCESS [1].

[1] - https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/nsf-announces-upcoming-...

link