> Curriculum > Comming soon! Seriously...?
Yes, seriously. Someone on the Internet made a typo.
It happens. Based on your surprise, it likely happens a lot more than you think.
Tiny Titan
51–60 of 70 posts
Re: Tiny Titan
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Glib response: because Windows is the dominant OS and my statement is statistically likely Serious response: I'm of the opinion that you don't learn much about Linux by using it in VirtualBox.
I meant running multiple VMs in VirtualBox to simulate a distributed system as an alternative to buying multiple Raspberry Pis, not running Linux in VirtualBox. The really cool thing, though, about multiple Raspberry Pis is that the systems really are running in parallel, rather than faking it with multitasking. That's definitely worth something in an educational context.
> The really cool thing, though, about multiple Raspberry Pis is that the systems really are running in parallel, rather than faking it with multitasking.
Imho, multitasking is a much cooler feat than parallelism by mere duplication of the CPU. It requires much more engineering effort, e.g. in areas of memory coherence and such. Also, a modern desktop CPU will be an order of magnitude faster than the RPi, so you'll need a lot of them to match performance.
Re: Tiny Titan
#53I'm thinking about building one, but with Pi Zero's and USB networking. The ClusterHAT guy wrote software to netboot the nodes off a cluster controller's SD through the USB network. With that, you don't even need an SDcard for each node. I was thinking about also adding a LED bar with one LED for each GPU SIMD element, refreshing a couple times per second and lighting up for the units used above a certain threshold.…
As I was reading this I was thinking "why not do it with Raspberry Pi Zeros, set up for mesh networking", like the OLPC "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Laptop_per_Child". It would significantly reduce the cost, and add a demonstration of a technology (mesh networking) that I think has been sorely neglected.
Re: Tiny Titan
#54Probably not clear from the pictures, but the Tiny Titan sits on the observation deck directly in front of the actual Titan supercomputer at ORNL. It's used as a hands on demonstration when tours are being given about how supercomputers work. A useful tool for explaining the basic concepts in a tangible way.
Now, that is cool.
Tours of a computing facility are otherwise pretty useless.
Re: Tiny Titan
#55Probably not clear from the pictures, but the Tiny Titan sits on the observation deck directly in front of the actual Titan supercomputer at ORNL. It's used as a hands on demonstration when tours are being given about how supercomputers work. A useful tool for explaining the basic concepts in a tangible way.
Now, that is cool. Tours of a computing facility are otherwise pretty useless.
You don't appreciate the sheer scale of hardware? The blinking LEDs alone are a spectacle.
Re: Tiny Titan
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I meant running multiple VMs in VirtualBox to simulate a distributed system as an alternative to buying multiple Raspberry Pis, not running Linux in VirtualBox. The really cool thing, though, about multiple Raspberry Pis is that the systems really are running in parallel, rather than faking it with multitasking. That's definitely worth something in an educational context.
Ah, I see what you mean. That makes more sense. Still, I think there's value in having this cool looking machine to fiddle with over the computer they're used to messing with all the time. I think it likely to engage more.
> I think it likely to engage more.
As opposed to running it by yourself on your own computer in a bunch of virtual machines?
Re: Tiny Titan
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, I see what you mean. That makes more sense. Still, I think there's value in having this cool looking machine to fiddle with over the computer they're used to messing with all the time. I think it likely to engage more.
> I think it likely to engage more. As opposed to running it by yourself on your own computer in a bunch of virtual machines?
Absolutely. Do you see no value in the maker skills involved in building the rig?
Re: Tiny Titan
#58Why not just simulate the computer on a single desktop PC using a bunch of virtual machines? It's less costly, and all of the concepts are the same (except for connecting them using cables, but that's only a plus if you like the physical experience over abstraction, in which case perhaps computing is not really your thing to start with).
So you are suggesting teaching basic cluster computing with an environment where one node can compute the results much faster and much easier?
I gather this is intended for K12 classrooms and demos, both of which are made infinitely more impressive by the blinking lights factor. VMs are great for in-depth training, but that's a different use case.
Re: Tiny Titan
#59As someone who about programming and electronics, but knows very little about parallel computing, is this a good place to start? Does anybody have other resources or projects to recommend?
Re: Tiny Titan
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now, that is cool. Tours of a computing facility are otherwise pretty useless.
You don't appreciate the sheer scale of hardware? The blinking LEDs alone are a spectacle.
At one point I noticed a dearth of blinking lights in our (CS dept) machine room and suggested we get some plywood, spray paint, and a bunch of LEDs so that anyone peering through the door wouldn't see a big room full of what looked like shelving and cable octopi.