How is a Beowulf different than a commercial parallel computer?

• You can buy a complete Beowulf from Aspen Systems, Microway, Penguin Computing, et. al.

• Examples of commercial parallel systems:

  • IBM SP2 & IBM SP3 (Power 2&3)
  • Cray T3E (Alpha 21164)

• Custom nodes

• Custom network infrastructure

• Really cool cabinets

Notes: