On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 9:12 AM, joem joem@martindale-electric.co.uk wrote:
no i get it - i added up once how many CPU Cards you could get into a single rack-mount space, it was absolutely mad.
Its how to wire all that that is difficult.
I'm building a hypercube (with emphasis on hype :) ) with extravagantly lit LED conduits for the wiring to be passed through to reach all computing elements in a 3D mesh. The idea being if all is well, the conduits are a pleasant colour while if there are problem, the conduits light the way to the problem areas.
niiice.
btw do consider this as well, it expands up to infinite size: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonblocking_minimal_spanning_switch
assuming a 2-bar crossbar as the "base unit", basically to create the next power of 2 up, you:
* duplicate the entire network of switches made so far * put them side-by-side * put in another "layer" * connect every ODD numbered output from the last of the old layers "straight through" * connect every EVEN numbered output to a port CROSS-WISE by adding N/2 to its port number
(N is obviously the current total number of inputs and outputs)
if you have a 4-port router then obviously you would quadruplicate the entire network so far, then connect the first one straight, the second one increase the port number by (N/4), the third by (N/4)*2, the fourth by (N/4)*3
if you have a 32-port hub as the base unit you could go straight to 32x32 nodes (1024) with only 2 layers.
i pretty much guarantee though that regardless of what you do, you'll end up with more wires and more network switches than anything else :)
l.