The Cost Of KASY0
The following is the complete (or nearly so) parts list. It may be useful to compare this to our previous big system, KLAT2, whose pricing summary is given here. Notice that costs for all items must be tracked in order for us to justify our claims of setting a new price/performance record.
| Subsystem |
Description |
Model/Part Number |
Vendor/Source |
Quantity |
Delivered Price |
| Node |
Athlon XP 2600+ Processor |
Athlon XP 2600+ Retail
(333MHz FSB) |
MonarchComputer.com |
128 |
$13690.00 |
| Node |
Athlon XP 2600+ Processor |
Athlon XP 2600+ Retail
(333MHz FSB) |
Googlegear.com |
4 |
$400.00 |
| Node |
512MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM |
Crucial CT6464Z335 |
MWave.Com |
132 |
$8316.00 |
| Node |
Athlon XP Motherboard |
BioStar M7VIT Pro |
MWave.Com |
132 |
$6996.00 |
| Node |
Node case + 400W power supply |
6042L Codegen |
4GoldenBridge.Com |
64 |
$2462.00 |
| Node |
Node case + 400W power supply |
6042L Codegen |
PineComputer.Com |
68 |
$2380.00 |
| Nodes Subtotal |
$34244.00 |
| Network |
Fast Ethernet NIC |
Linksys LNE100TX |
AlanComputech.Com |
280 |
$2082.00 |
| Network |
24-port Fast Ethernet Switch |
BenQ SE0024 |
NewEgg.Com |
6 |
$432.00 |
| Network |
24-port Fast Ethernet Switch |
BenQ SE0024 |
AudioExchange.Com |
10 |
$772.03 |
| Network |
24-port Fast Ethernet Switch |
BenQ SE0024 |
existing equipment |
2 |
$152.00 |
| Network |
Cat5e 15-foot Cable (9 colors) |
CBLC515 |
LanAdapters.Com |
450 |
$807.95 |
| Network Subtotal |
$4245.98 |
| Support |
6-Shelf Commercial Chrome Rack |
Sku# 831725 |
SamsClub.Com |
6 |
$548.60 |
| Support |
20" Box Fan |
Lakewood Model 202 |
WalMart.Com |
2 |
$22.09 |
| Support |
Surge Protector Power Strip |
Statitec 6-outlet Sku# 808571 |
SamsClub.Com |
1 (32-pack) |
$173.64 |
| Support |
Materials for power mounts |
BC Plywood, 2x4s, 7/8" dowels, glue, screws, paint |
local places/stock |
|
$20.00 |
| Assembly |
Food for student helpers |
4 dozen Panera Bagels, 11 large Papa John's Pizzas, 5 cases assorted soft drinks, 1 case party mix, 1 case Grandma's cookies, 2 cases miniture cheesecakes |
local places |
|
$200.00 |
| Misc. Subtotal |
$964.33 |
| Total |
$39454.31 |
We do not include the Nikon 950 camera which we have mounted in the cluster because it is completely unrelated to the cluster's operation, serving as a webcam and security monitor for the entire lab. Neither does the cost above include a firewall or a "head node," because the entire lab is behind an old PC used as a firewall and KASY0's configuration allows any of a number of existing machines to serve as "head nodes" for different purposes (i.e., KASY0 is a cluster of peer nodes). If we were to use included spare hardware for the firewall and head node, the only additional cost would be less than $100 for a disk drive.
The assembly cost might seem low, but we easily could have obtained comparable-performance assembled systems for similar pricing. In a university setting, it is simply more appropriate to give students the experience of building the systems and, as a side benefit, we get better control over the precise choice of components used and how they are assembled. For example, each case came with two side fans, which we converted into a redundant stack venting out the back. We also took a cost hit on doing our own assembly in a variety of ways; for example, shipping is higher for parts than for assembled systems. Another cost hit cam because we bought just 4 processors to test assemble systems with and only then ordered the other 128 -- had we ordered everything at once (as we would have for assembled systems), all the processors would have been purchased before a 7% price increase hit. We didn't cut corners on anything; note that we counted spares in the cost, the cases have 400W power supplies, the processors have full warranty retail packages, and even the power strips came with surge protection and full insurance for the protected equipment.
Thus, KASY0's "street cost" is under $40,000 by any accounting. In comparison, KLAT2's "street cost" was $41,205 for just 64+2 nodes, each of which was about 1/3 the speed of a KASY0 node. The memory size is also 4x per node, 8x total. Network latency typically will be identical, with total bandwidth about 1.5x that of KLAT2. The accounting of the network cost is somewhat debatable in that each node motherboard contains one built-in NIC; we counted that NIC as part of the node cost, not network cost, because the board isn't available without the NIC. Even if we had ignored the built-in NIC and purchased more NICs, the network on KASY0 is close to half the cost of that on KLAT2 -- after all, it even uses narrower switches than KLAT2 did: 24-port vs. 32-port switches.
An even cuter comparison is with this, a $50,000+ system built using 70 PlayStation2 units. Not only does KASY0 have a vastly superior network and significantly higher floating point performance per node (8 GFLOPS vs. 6.5 GFLOPS for the PS2), but we get LOTS more nodes!
For those interested in how this compares to UK's SDX HP Superdome, the quick answer is that the two machines are very different, but have roughly comparable performance. The HP is a vendor-packaged system with more processors (224 total: 3x64 + 1x32 750MHz HP PA-RISC 8700), more memory (448GB), and a higher double-precision speed (672 GFLOPS peak, 431.7 GFLOPS Linpack). On the other hand, KASY0's integer and single-precision speeds are faster (e.g., 1062.4 GFLOPS peak, 471.5 GFLOPS Linpack), it is a homogeneous system (not a cluster of different-sized shared memory systems), and power consumption is several times lower. Oh yeah: KASY0 also is much cheaper!
I'm posting this for comparison: it's the cost breakdown for their previous cluster built back in 2000. Check out how much prices have declined (and speed/capacity has increased) in the past 3 years:
The Cost Of KLAT2
KLAT2's cost is somewhat difficult to specify precisely because the most expensive components, the Athlon processors, were donated by their manufacturer, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices). Here, we quote the retail price for these processors as found on Multiwave's WWW site on May 3, 2000. Similarly, although most applications use only 64 nodes, KLAT2 also has 2 "hot spare" nodes and an additional switch layer that are used for fault tolerance and system-level I/O; because we consider these components to be an integral part of KLAT2's design, we include their cost. We also included 16 spare NICs and several spare surge protectors. Due to University of Kentucky purchasing guidelines and part stocking issues, purchases from the same vendor were sometimes split in odd ways and there were various inconsistencies about how shipping was charged; although the vendor totals are correct, we have had to approximate the component cost breakdown in these cases.
The following table details the cost of KLAT2. Although specific vendors are listed, note that being listed here should not be taken as an implicit endorsement by the authors or by the University of Kentucky. Aside from donation of the Athlons, there were no exceptional discounts or other arrangements with any of the vendors.
| Vendor and Part Descriptions |
Cost |
AMD
66 Donated 700MHz Athlon OEM processor modules @ ~$200 |
$13,200 |
MemoryX
66 128MB PC100 CAS2 SDRAMs @ $93 |
$6,182 |
Technology Partners
66 Polaris II ATX Mid Towers 300W @ $58
66 Sony 1.44MB Floppy Drives (for net boot) @ $11 |
$5,455 |
Multiwave Technology
66 FIC SD11 Motherboards @ $104
10 Smartlink 32-port wire-speed 100Mb/s switches @ $527
28 Smartlink 100Mb/s NIC 10-packs @ $80 |
$14,338 |
Buy.Com
32 Hawking 15' color-coded Cat.5 cable 5-packs @ $9
32 Hawking 15' transparent color-coded Cat.5e cable 5-packs @ $12 |
$706 |
Coolerstar
66 AMD K7/PII Dual Fans (CPU heat sinks & fans) @ $5
66 DC Fans 80mm (extra case fans) @ $4 |
$607 |
Lowe's
4 48"x18"x72" black wire-frame shelves @ $64 |
$256 |
Wal-mart
2 WindDance fans (to direct airflow between shelves) @ $15
20 Surgestrip model 201 surge protectors @ $4 |
$109 |
Various local stores
16 3" diameter threaded-mount wheels for shelves @ $9
16 Pizzas for student helpers @ $10
4 Cases of soda student helpers @ $7
4 2" diameter threaded-mount wheels for rack @ $7 |
$352 |
Available at no cost/indirectly used items
1 10-year-old rack & mounting hardware
1 Surplus 17" monitor used for cluster status
1 Old PCI video card used for cluster status
1 18GB EIDE disk drive
66 Set of inkjet-printed labels for each node
2 Other clusters for KLAT2's HW design and SW development |
|
| Total |
$41,205 |
In summary, KLAT2's total value is about $41,200, with the primary costs being roughly $13,200 in processors, $8,100 in the network, $6,900 in motherboards, and $6,200 in memory.