Cluster / Render Farm

[Andrew2]

We've seen a lot of interest for clusters in many applications. This whole area is just going to grow. We're trying out different use cases to show people just what is possible.

BTW: There is already some basic work done regarding reliability testing and exploring relationship between heat dissipation (something where your current designs have room for a lot of improvements) and performance. In case you're interested: http://linux-sunxi.org/User:Tkaiser#Reli..._on_Pine64

If you've several Pine64 lying around it would be great if you could contribute to the reliability testing efforts (and optimised dvfs settings are something you're clearly interested in since otherwise a cluster can't show top performance).

[Epsilon]

I really would really like a 'Cluster' area.  

As I said already my interest in the 'Pine 64' is a render farm.  I watched a video on YouTube of a Render Farm setup in 2010 with 24 nodes.  Each node ran "Ubuntu".  They stated their monthly electricity bill was in excess of $1,000.  I am confident that the speed and memory of the $29 version of the 'Pine 64' is comparable to this.  But the electricity consumption would be much less.

I have some experience with building clusters of consumer hardware, mostly laptops with an i5 and 8gb of ram. 40 of these cannot compete with a single 770 as far as rendering video is concerned In my experience the only place where clusters of inexpensive hardware beat a PC with a mid range or last gen graphics card is one where you need tons of ip addresses. Having a cluster is cool for experimentation and developing software to be put onto a larger supercomputer. Its also great for street cred, but in reality a cluster of SBCs is not worth it, spend your money on a graphics card and learn how to program CUDA, it's far easier to manage and you have a computer than can run more or less any software to boot. 

If you want to see what a cluster of SBCs should be used for look at the use cases for pico cluster.

[pharris430]

Just found this thread! I've been testing my pine in setting up a hadoop server so haven't spent much time on the forums. I also am a part time animator/producer (Wanderers Wood) and use the CGA software Animation Master. A:M has the ability to render frames to a farm (they use their own app called Netrender). The hitch there is that it is either windows or apple. It would be interesting to see if the pine could be extended to perform as a render farm for A:M. 

I'm willing to do the leg work of doing a proof in concept between A:M and pine, IF there is an interest from the pine folks. Since i am a full time integration developer, my animation work usually is done in the off hours, so time is limited. But since I need a render farm, and the whole idea of a bank of pines that can be solar powered is truly exceptional, I'm willing to work towards that end.

Also, if a moderator is still needed, I'd be willing to take that on if need be.

[pharris430]

There are a couple of issues with using the pine64 as part of a render farm. The first and biggest is ram. Multiple GB's per core is best. The other is the OS. The CG software I use currently only supports windows and apple. Now with the support of Win 10 IoT, it may be possible that A:M will run on it, I plan on doing some testing on that in the coming weeks. But, it will need to have ethernet or wifi support fixed. IF i can get A:M to run on win 10IoT then I will start benchmarking, and perhaps in the coming months add boards to see how they stack up to a desktop.

Time will tell.

[clustercomputing]

Hello everyone. I know I am jumping into this thread quite late but I am in the process of purchasing a large set of systems for cluster use. I currently work at HPC facility and was planning on using a system such as a the pine64 for testing and for fun. I have not purchased anything as of yet since I am still in the testing phase. But Figured I would do my best to help others use or play with the cluster once its ready.

[tllim]

Hello everyone. I know I am jumping into this thread quite late but I am in the process of purchasing a large set of systems for cluster use. I currently work at HPC facility and was planning on using a system such as a the pine64 for testing and for fun. I have not purchased anything as of yet since I am still in the testing phase. But Figured I would do my best to help others use or play with the cluster once its ready.

Looking forward on your involvement. Looking forward on a green power pico server cluster that self power using solar on daytime and manage power saving scaling at night especially each board has its own Lithium power supply source.