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A Pi-Powered Plan 9 Cluster

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Re: A Pi-Powered Plan 9 Cluster

#21

Post by dexen »

ordu wrote: post #20

> The project provided an excuse to make use of a Vortex Core 47-key keyboard, which together with a mini white HDMI monitor, provided a particularly compact and suitably futuristic feeling setup. As for me this keyboard doesn't seem futuristic at all. It reminds me of the first computer I experienced in my life.[1] I mean, it is lovely keyboard, I really like it. Just "futuristic" is a strange way to describe it. It…

>futuristic

Presumably through Vortex'[0] similarity to the Symbolics PN 365407[1][2] keyboard, with its very distinctive design that manages to capture at once both futurism and timelessness.

Disregard the 2020's clunky cherry switch keyboards, acquire the OG Best Keyboard.

--

[0] https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/images/products/large_V...

[1] http://xahlee.info/kbd/symbolics_keyboard_pn_365407.html

[2] http://coder.zoomquiet.top/data/20130716102310/index.html

Re: A Pi-Powered Plan 9 Cluster

#22

Post by rbanffy »

dexen wrote: post #21
ordu wrote: post #20

> The project provided an excuse to make use of a Vortex Core 47-key keyboard, which together with a mini white HDMI monitor, provided a particularly compact and suitably futuristic feeling setup. As for me this keyboard doesn't seem futuristic at all. It reminds me of the first computer I experienced in my life.[1] I mean, it is lovely keyboard, I really like it. Just "futuristic" is a strange way to describe it. It…

>futuristic Presumably through Vortex'[0] similarity to the Symbolics PN 365407[1][2] keyboard, with its very distinctive design that manages to capture at once both futurism and timelessness. Disregard the 2020's clunky cherry switch keyboards, acquire the OG Best Keyboard. -- [0] https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/images/products/large_V... [1] http://xahlee.info/kbd/symbolics_keyboard_pn_365407.html [2] http://c…

I believe you are right on spot with that - the minimalism, of the keyboard, case and the Plan 9 UI evoke some sort of timelessness, the same way a Connection Machine still looks futuristic today.

Re: A Pi-Powered Plan 9 Cluster

#23

Post by pjmlp »

arghwhat wrote: post #6
msk-lywenn wrote: post #5

It would have been nice to know how the software side of the clustering was set up. How easy/painful was it to let the different pies know they were part of a single cluster, how easy/painful was it to have different programs seemlessly use resources from different pies, etc.

On plan9, all your services are file based. The difference between a cluster and a standalone setup is just whether you mount local instances of a service, or remote instances. For a cluster, you'll usually have a cwfs/hjfs (persistent storage) server, a faktotum (auth) server, and one or more CPU servers, and possibly a terminal machine. You can then freely use or connect to CPU servers. As everything is shared, and…

> everything will feel local.

Not in what concerns graphics rendering performance.

Re: A Pi-Powered Plan 9 Cluster

#27

Post by magicalhippo »

OskarS wrote: post #14
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this - the PI's are great for hacking and hardware, but obsession with PI for compute does not make sence. Any used PC/NUC/Intel Atom board is much, much faster and some cost around the same.

I think the utility is more with experimenting with distributed computing technologies in a relatively affordable way, with hardware that is familiar and simple to set up.

I made a small SAN, just for learning. Four pi4's serving two USB-SATA disks each via iSCSI to my NAS, which mounts them as a ZFS pool. The pi4's are connected to a switch with a 10G link to the NAS.

Again, mainly just for fun and experience.

Re: A Pi-Powered Plan 9 Cluster

#29

Post by bullen »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #13
varispeed wrote: post #10

While this looks cool it is far from useful. I took time to build such cluster with the Pies and shortly after it landed in the box of things I may need in the future. It's just too slow to do anything useful. Watching stuff compile or even boot was like watching paint dry. It is much better to get a bunch of used NUC if you are space conscious or just get VMWare Workstation or similar tool to simulate number of mach…

I second this - the PI's are great for hacking and hardware, but obsession with PI for compute does not make sence. Any used PC/NUC/Intel Atom board is much, much faster and some cost around the same.

They are much faster because they draw more energy.

The Raspberry 4 at 1 Gflops/watt is a better option if you want to power the thing with lead acid batteries as backup power for more than 24 hours.

Also Raspberry 4 can be cooled passively with a smaller heatsink so the total size and weight is less.

Re: A Pi-Powered Plan 9 Cluster

#30

Post by bullen »

zhte415 wrote: post #12
pandatigox wrote: post #4

Does anyone have a link to that monitor? It looks uber cute!

Looks a lot like this but with a different stand https://www.beetronics.com/12-inch-monitor-white (i.e. probably not that :) but similar).

I can recommend the 15" 4:3 which has a ok quality display for non-moving graphics (the brand is Sharp): https://www.beetronics.be/ecran-15-pouces-en-metal-4-3

But beware, these are cheap Chinese monitors available from alibaba company jwell (cheaper but with bad display) so be prepared for a bad experience with the remote.

On the upside, these monitors have Composite (for use with older computers) and can be powered by 12v (span 9-33v, not tested though)!

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