How to Build a Beowulf: A Guide to the Implementation and Application of PC Clusters

Before I purchased this book I was completely intimidated by the idea of building a Beowulf Cluster. I found this book to be a surprisingly thorough and accessible resource, allowing me to get a great understanding of what was needed. I've just placed my order for the equipment for my first cluster and can't wait to get it up and running!

I must take issue with some of the other reviewers of this text. I found this book to be a very good overview (and snapshot) of the current status of a rapidly evolving system architecture. It is written at a fairly high level (although it does dip periodically into details) - so the reader gets a good overview of what a Beowulf is, its' components, and many of the issues involved in designing and implementing one. In my view it balances detail and theory quite well. IT IS NOT (nor do I believe it was intended as) a detailed roadmap of EXACTLY how to build one. The Beowulf architecture isn't so much a single type of implementation, but rather an approach to applying COTS technology to solving computational problems. The details of any single Beowulf implementation depend greatly on the specific computational problem being attacked. (Something that is pointed-out within the book.) The authors therefore took a different approach.Some of the topics covered in the book WILL, eventually, be outdated: specifically, the section on the PCI bus, some of the material on network technology, and the section on available processors. As COTS technology advances, and as Beowulf architectures change to take advantage of those advances, some sections will become outdated. However, this is unavoidable for any text reviewing the current state-of-the-art. There is also a lot more here that is NOT likely to be outdated within the next several years..There may also be sections in the text that the reader will already be familiar with, and can therefore skip. This is also inevitable considering the nature of the text and will obviously vary depending on the reader. I can recomend this text highly as a starting point in learning what a Beowulf is, some of the ways they are put together, and for exploring many important design and implementation decisions. In my own case, it helped me resolve a number of design issues I was wrestling with about my own system. It does not, however, stand alone. After starting with this text, most readers will then certainly need to refer to online sources for further information.

Although the book has yet to be released, the concept is amazing. Essentially, it's about bringing the power of supercomputing to the masses through the use of off-the-shelf PC hardware. Specifically, clusters PC's running the Linux operating system.Donald Becker is intimate with the hardware end of Beowulf clusters, being associated with one of the first Beowulf's to be built, and also author of several of Linux' ethernet drivers.This book should be nothing less than stunning. I, personally, intend to build a bowulf to explore complex system theory and its applications to the world's financial markets. If these kind of high-power, calculation intensive topics interest you, join me in pre-ordering this phenomenal offering.