platform for number crunching---resume

[geoffrey mendelson]

On Jun 20, 2010, at 11:48 AM, Meir Michanie wrote:

> There is always another option,...
> one other option would be to underclock your CPUs and then even when  
> they hit the 100% usage over long periods as it is running at lower  
> speed, it wouldn't heat that much.



The problem with that is the whole system is desinged to be run at  
about 85% useage. Beyond that everything overheats, electrical signals  
interfere with each other, etc.

100% is ok for peaks, but if the system runs like that for days, it's  
going to fail. Even if you were to add better cpu cooling, replace  
passive heat sinks on other chips with active ones, and so on.

Attempts at using commerical game systems such as the PS/3 for compute  
farms did not do well. The first version was fine, but the latest  
"slim" one can't sustain high cpu rates, which is one reason Sony  
dropped (with a loud thud) Linux on them.

Geoff.
-- 
geoffrey mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM Jerusalem Israel geoffreymendelson at gmail.com
I do multitasking. If that bothers you, file a complaint and I will  
start ignoring it immediately.