e: [rescue] IBM RS/6k 48P

[vance at neurotica.com]

On Tue, 4 Feb 2003, Jochen Kunz wrote:

> As you know everything about RS/6k machines:
> http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3400240136&category=8075
> RS6000 SP2 High Nodes
>
> Would it be possible to run individual nodes as usual AIX machines?
> Dual 160 MHz POWER 2 sounds nice.

Yes, you can use them as single machines.  I wouldn't though.  I'll go
into that in the third paragraph.

First of all, it wouldn't be dual 160MHz POWER2.  The HIGH nodes are
single- to eight-processor 200MHz PowerPC 604e.  The THIN nodes are
single-processor 160MHz POWER2SC.  I don't think the POWER2SC chip
supports multiprocessing out of the box.  If there are 2 or less 604e's in
the HIGH node, then the POWER2SC-based node will be faster.  The POWER2SC
is a significantly higher performing processor than the 604e.  However,
the two 8-processor HIGH nodes in that stack would thoroughly stomp.

You don't actually need an SP switch in order to build an RS/6000 SP.  You
just need the Parallel Facilities for AIX package and an interconnect
medium, which can be SP switch, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, FDDI, ATM or
Token Ring.

Peace...  Sridhar

P.S.  I don't think I know everything about RS/6000's.  It's just that
I've spent a lot of time with them.