Can you make a super computer?

A

ashdavid

Member
Well on a small scale, which would mean that it is not actually a super computer. But what I am talking about is using two mothers boards and CPU's ,video cards ect, ect and then link them together so they work with each other to produce a more powerful PC?

I am just curious as to if it is possible?
 
That would still be more of an engineering task there. For work horses to see more work done in less time older server boards saw two cpus instead of one single core model there. Recently AMD released the FX-74 dual core model used with a second identical cpu on one board due to a lack of their marketing a quad core until late 2007.
 
PC eye said:
That would still be more of an engineering task there. For work horses to see more work done in less time older server boards saw two cpus instead of one single core model there. Recently AMD released the FX-74 dual core model used with a second identical cpu on one board due to a lack of their marketing a quad core until late 2007.
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So if you figure out how to link the MOBO them it is possible? But that poses the question of how to link them together?
 
Processing is performed internally on each board. This is why some boards will see the option for a second cpu to handle a larger work load usually intended more for networking. There are tie ons for seeing two systems share one keyboard, mouse, and monitor. But you simply switch back and forth between two systems likely even seeing two separate OSs.

Two systems working independently to process information from one extermal source like video is something seen more with broadcasting and studio musicians where they mix things coming from several sources back into one main. For a tv station you would see several systems performing different tasks in order to produce one product like your evening news. That amounts to networking similar to what an ISP sees.
 
It would be easy if you had identical systems, you network all the systems together and install simple software on one of them (maybe all depending on software) then the main computer with the software on it connects all the resources of all the systems as one, So basiclly you would have a background program allways splitting up data to all of the CPU's. (search wikipedia)
 
All of that still amounts to using more then one system for multitasking rather then combining more then one board + cpu into one system to build a more powerful single system there. Considering how much is changed in hardwares in the last several years alone you are using a powerhouse super pc at this time when compared to some old boat anchor like an 8088 or even I286 system.

The first notebooks used microcassette tapes and a tape drive for storage of programs you wrote manually unless preloaded from a tape there. A quick look at a 1982 Epson notebook will show how much counts on engineering and design even for something small like a portable or desktop.

First a look at the first notebook...



Now compare that to a more recent model just by seeing the lcd display alone and obviously lack of any tape drives or addon memory modules to see 512kb of ram!

 
And so I am curious as to what you want to do with this ......super computer? Wouldn't a server app be similar? A mb with muliple Xeon processors? I assume you would use some multithreading application? (many cpus working on a single task)

:confused: Sorry if this is but the dumbest question. I know nothing about everything.
 
Simply take a look at the things you are able to do with the newer Asus laptop in the image there and compare that to the small amount you could do with the "antique" Epson tape drive notebook in the first. The random comparison there alone shows a super pc to a turtle when compared. Multimedia, gaming on a far larger scale, refined word processing, and other things make the Asus the super powered "wiz kid" in a not much larger casing.
 
Ready said:
And so I am curious as to what you want to do with this ......super computer? Wouldn't a server app be similar? A mb with muliple Xeon processors? I assume you would use some multithreading application? (many cpus working on a single task)

:confused: Sorry if this is but the dumbest question. I know nothing about everything.
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Just like with anything, always trying to learn,improve or simply do it just b/c it can be done. But when all is said and done, if it gets you a more powerful computer and you have the resources to build one then there is not disadvantages, well thats the way I see it.
 
The concept is easy enough to understand. But for the average users that generally goes outside their realm of experience since engineers and system analysts are usually consulted as well as computer scientists along these lines. This is why I made the comparison between the two worlds apart seen with the first notebook on the market to what would be commonly seen at this time. The technologies have changed drastically since then to show what is possible.
 
PC eye said:
The concept is easy enough to understand. But for the average users that generally goes outside their realm of experience since engineers and system analysts are usually consulted as well as computer scientists along these lines. This is why I made the comparison between the two worlds apart seen with the first notebook on the market to what would be commonly seen at this time. The technologies have changed drastically since then to show what is possible.
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I see what you are saying. I am a pretty average user, but I don't mind spending a bit to have some fun. I would be really interested to know if it can be done b/c I can have a custom case made to the mother boards.
 
From a technical point of view here I would still have to consult an engineer as to how to even go about trying to cophase boards together along with seeing more then one cpu. That falls into the catagories of electronics design engineer and computer science there for the most part.

Advanced math gets involved as well as for calculating the various aspects leaving the average field service tech scratching his head. But the main thing to see there is simply put as "innovation"! :D
 
Why not just pick up an 8 way Xeon server with SCSI or fiber drives. They can be had fairly inexpensively on eBay if you don't have to have bleeding edge hardware. Yes, they are fun to play with but you'll need a more commercial OS as home owner OSs won't see all of the CPUs.

As someone else mentioned, there are also various clusters that can be built.
 
The real question there is about how to custom modify a system rather then simply running out for existing setups in order to see a more powerful system. The term innovation refers to "something new" rather then slapping current hardwares together by seeing a totally new design while still applying existing technologies or developing a new one to reach a goal.
 
Yes we can do this but the interfacing of two mobo with the processor is difficult but still a feasible task to perform.
 
With networks you see the term "mainframes" used there where multiple systems are tied together in order to handle massive amounts of varying tasks. That's when you generally see multiple boards working together with each having so many tasks assigned to each one as part of a section.

The comparison earlier with the portables from two different pc generations there shows the potential when newer technologies were applied in roughly the same amount of physical space.
 
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