[ExeterLUG] Raspberry PI cluster project

[Paul Sutton]

On 05/11/13 17:44, Malcolm Dinsmore wrote:
> Hi Paul and everyone else interested!
>
> Thanks for your interest in the raspberry pi cluster project. 
>
> I suggested this project and I've been working out how to do it over
> the last few weeks. 
>
> I've got a small cluster working and have an SD card image with arch
> Linux (because it's a minimalist installation without X etc) and the
> mpich software configured.  I've also written some config scripts that
> can be used to upload rsa keys, programs, etc. 
>
> My original plan was to get people to bring along a raspberry pi /
> power supply / blank SD card / net cable this Friday so we could have
> a go at building a bigger cluster.
>
> However, with the equipment problems we encountered last Saturday at
> The Ark Nursery, the plan for this Friday is to continue the work at
> the ark, so we'll have to do the raspberry pi cluster experiment at a
> later date. 
>
> The extra time will perhaps give me the opportunity to look more
> deeply into the programming aspects and perhaps I can do a short
> presentation on how to write a program for the cluster. 
>
> By the way, I've run a Monte Carlo method pi calculation program
> (using 10^7 points) on the cluster and the results are:
>
> 1 raspberry pi node  : ~19 seconds
> 2 raspberry pi nodes: ~9 seconds (1/2 time for 1 pi)
> 3 raspberry pi nodes: ~6 seconds (1/3 time for 1 pi)
>
> I guess we can see a pattern emerging...
>
> Obviously 10^7 points is just so I could test it quickly with the
> three raspi nodes I have access to.  We need to increase the number of
> points for a larger cluster.  
>
> Hope that helps bring you up to date... 
>
> Malcolm

This may be of interest for the project

http://raspberrywebserver.com/raspberrypicluster/raspberry-pi-cluster.html

paul