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Tiny Titan

tinytitan.github.io

11–20 of 70 posts

Re: Tiny Titan

#11
post #6

This is still using original Series Bs... which are essentially obsolete by now. I stopped using them around 2 years ago: https://github.com/rcarmo/raspi-cluster Using Pi 3 boards would quadruple the number of cores and yield a 600% increase in thanks to the slightly faster default clock rate...

[deleted]

Re: Tiny Titan

#12
post #6

This is still using original Series Bs... which are essentially obsolete by now. I stopped using them around 2 years ago: https://github.com/rcarmo/raspi-cluster Using Pi 3 boards would quadruple the number of cores and yield a 600% increase in thanks to the slightly faster default clock rate...

looks like the last update to the site was in mid 2015, so nowadays one should probably get the pi3 instead. However the github repo for the simulations is still empty.

Re: Tiny Titan

#13
post #4

More descriptive title, e.g. ‘Tiny Titan, a $1,000 classroom supercomputer’ would be helpful.

How does this cost $1,000? The budget is clearly not being used efficiently. The only computing part, the 9 RPi's are 315$ all together. So what, 685$ of plastic and accessories. Hmm....

(joking) gotta get that rgb man

Re: Tiny Titan

#14
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not actually trying to build a high-powered computing cluster, just demonstrate how one works.

Neither of them is really high-powered, believe me. :) But using one with old B boards could be excruciatingly slow at times, which is why I just had to upgrade mine - it’s since become a lot more productive in the sense that my tests take around 5 minutes instead of a whole hour :)

I doubt you're the only one on here with the understanding that a bunch of Pi's is not really a supercomputer cluster, but thanks for the clarification smileyface.

Re: Tiny Titan

#16
post #10

Why not just use virtual machines to sub out the RPis? Without the curriculum, it's not clear what they're trying to teach here. Assembly? Networking? Administration of the RPis?

the fact that it looks really cool likely has surprisingly strong effects on student motivation and work/attention levels, leading to more learning, which is the sole target here

Who are the students though? I'd assume that parallel computing is mostly interesting for university-grade "aspiring scientists", which is reinforced by the example software (a parallel 2D Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics(SPH) code and a parallel Mandelbrot set race).

Do we assume that 18+ folks are only interested in parallel programming if it's assembled of shiny pipes?

Re: Tiny Titan

#17
post #10

Why not just use virtual machines to sub out the RPis? Without the curriculum, it's not clear what they're trying to teach here. Assembly? Networking? Administration of the RPis?

the fact that it looks really cool likely has surprisingly strong effects on student motivation and work/attention levels, leading to more learning, which is the sole target here

>the fact that it looks really cool likely has surprisingly strong effects on student motivation and work/attention levels

This. The first step to teaching anyone anything is to grab their attention. Especially kids/teens.

But I'll admit, the price is too steep. They can definitely do better

Re: Tiny Titan

#18
post #9
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this cost $1,000? The budget is clearly not being used efficiently. The only computing part, the 9 RPi's are 315$ all together. So what, 685$ of plastic and accessories. Hmm....

30 bucks per USB LED Light, 15 bucks per USB cable... they don't choose cheap components.

Yeah they could save a bunch on those; the USB LEDs are things they could make themselves, stick them into the gpio pins. Actually they don't need those.

If your parts are more expensive than the rPI itself, you're not going to need it. Those cases aren't cheap either.

Re: Tiny Titan

#19
post #10

Why not just use virtual machines to sub out the RPis? Without the curriculum, it's not clear what they're trying to teach here. Assembly? Networking? Administration of the RPis?

the fact that it looks really cool likely has surprisingly strong effects on student motivation and work/attention levels, leading to more learning, which is the sole target here

Yeah I think having something physical around will definitely help - being able to visualize something was really important for me back in school.

We had an overpriced external hard drive we had to slot into computers to play around with, but it helped because it wasn't a virtual "imaginary" thing.

Re: Tiny Titan

#20
post #6

This is still using original Series Bs... which are essentially obsolete by now. I stopped using them around 2 years ago: https://github.com/rcarmo/raspi-cluster Using Pi 3 boards would quadruple the number of cores and yield a 600% increase in thanks to the slightly faster default clock rate...

They're not actually trying to build a high-powered computing cluster, just demonstrate how one works.

They could / should switch to a Pi Zero or Zero W then, save more than half on the expense of the devices.

Or make it so you can plug in any Pi, is there anything of a secondhand market for those yet? I can imagine there isn't though, those things are cheap enough to be throwaway / lose in a drawer devices.

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