On Sun, 2 Jan 2005, Anthony J. Ciani wrote:
> And what ever happened to M-VIA and VIA?
Loss of funding. Loss of interest.
> They would help reduce processor load some.
Not sure about reduced CPU time...
> Is it just that TCP can pump stuff out at near wire-speed as it is,
> so there is no need for VIA?
If you're only interested in bandwidth, TCP can reach quite close to
the theoretical maximum. But if you're interested in latency (as I
am), TCP hurts a lot. VIA (the architecture itself not a specific
implementation) was quite a good idea IMHO, however it didn't catch
enough to make it widely spread, as it's the case with TCP, therefore
the support for it from both sides (low level - network drivers and
high level - MPI libs) is spotty.
> Has anyone ever thought of using IPX/SPX networks? For clusters,
> they might be more efficient than TCP/IP.
IPv6 might also have some advantages w.r.t IPv4... but we again have
TCP on top of it.
--
Bogdan Costescu
IWR - Interdisziplinaeres Zentrum fuer Wissenschaftliches Rechnen
Universitaet Heidelberg, INF 368, D-69120 Heidelberg, GERMANY
Telephone: +49 6221 54 8869, Telefax: +49 6221 54 8868
E-mail: Bogdan.Costescu_at_[hidden]
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