Big Cluster Project 11 April 2006

Come help us make a big parallel cluster on 11 April 2006!

• If you are in CS 521, you'll get five points credit for participating (details below).
• It's after instruction ends but before exams start, so you have no excuse.
• It'll be right before Tuesday Tea.
• Brett says he'll get Google to buy pizza for us.
• It'll be fun!

We want to get a lot of computers, where "a lot" is on the order of 40.

We want to run a cool parallel program on the cluster. If you have a suggestion, add it to the list below. The suggestions we have so far

• Finding large prime numbers
• LINPACK

Something graphical -- something interesting to watch -- would be more fun than something purely textual like prime numbers.

CS 521 credit

To get CS 521 credit, you need to do the following:

• Burn a (tbd) CD.
  • http://bccd.cs.uni.edu/
• Boot your laptop from that CD to make sure that the burn was correct, that your system will boot, etc.
• Bring your computer(s) and the CD to (tbd location). Laptops are preferable, since we might be limited in the number of power outlets we will have.
  • If you don't have a laptop, you can bring in your desktop; we will have at least one monitor that we can swap around.
  • If you don't have a laptop, you can borrow one for four hours (not renewable) from Koerner Library or Woodward Library, Circulation Desk, entrance level.
• Be fully prepared to boot your own computer as a slave, and to help out anyone who showed up who is not in 521 (i.e. who has even less experience than you have).