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30" Apple Cinema Display Cluster

H

hokatichenci

Gawd
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Messages
722
I just thought I'd post about this here out of sheer interest of the response...

So what would happen if you took a 30" Apple Cinema LCD, put it with 49 of its brothers, placed them side by side into a nice grid, hooked up a bunch of computers and set up some distributed imaging system to make it all pretty? You get a HIPerWall. Suffice to say, its impossible to really describe how amazing this thing is being that it is so large. Doing large scale image analysis (ie satellite imagery) is interesting since you get the big picture without losing any data.

Links-
Project Page
Images

**Disclaimer: I work for this research group, though not on this project.
 
Oh my goodness! :eek: Now that is the ultimate display system. I want one :D no wait two :p That is friggn awsome. Imaging running flight simulator on that :eek:
 
wow, that is madness. wonder what is powering that!


edit: just read, but only DUAL 2.7s aww :p
 
DaCoOlNeSs said:
wow, that is madness. wonder what is powering that!


edit: just read, but only DUAL 2.7s aww :p
Click to expand...

The original cluster specifications were going to be Twin 6800 Ultras on S2895 with Opteron 246/248's, some serious amount of RAM and 1TB raid10... but building huge machines like that isn't cheap and takes up a lot of time (wiring up 50 of those rigs is 400 hard drives, yeouch!). Plus the availability on a lot of that hardware was pretty slim. The G5's are sexy as hell though :D
 
But what is the computer that controls those 50 x 2.7GHz G5 node? And how? I can send a keyboard signal to my computer and make it display whatever I like.

But how do you make a central computer to send a display signal to another computer? What software would that be?

Also, why bother have a G5 behind each panel? You know there are video card like FX4500, FX4400, ATI X1800 series that can display 4 x 30" ACD, that would cut the purchasing price of 50 x G5 down to 13 x G5, a savings of 37 x G5 less 37 x 2 x FX4400.
 
or they could have just spend 20 000 dollars on a projector and get it over with.. and it wont look like 50 little displays..
 
mjz_5 said:
or they could have just spend 20 000 dollars on a projector and get it over with.. and it wont look like 50 little displays..
Click to expand...

or have a 204 megapixel res...
 
[H]ard...pure and simple. It seems as if it's tedious if they're going for just a large screen, but knowing what it is would distract me more than whatever it is they would try to present from it.
 
Yeah, all those G5s seem really overkill. If all they do is display what is sent to them, why did they need dual 2.7s, or even G5s at all? Hell, they couldn't done with Mini's if there was a way to stick 6800s in them. Still... I mean, Apple doesn't make a tower between the Mini and the G5 (which is dumb as hell, but another thread), so, I guess G5s were the only option, but they could've still saved bank going with single proc G5s of the slowest variety.
 
NulloModo said:
Yeah, all those G5s seem really overkill. If all they do is display what is sent to them, why did they need dual 2.7s, or even G5s at all? Hell, they couldn't done with Mini's if there was a way to stick 6800s in them. Still... I mean, Apple doesn't make a tower between the Mini and the G5 (which is dumb as hell, but another thread), so, I guess G5s were the only option, but they could've still saved bank going with single proc G5s of the slowest variety.
Click to expand...

Not only the dual processor is a waste, but if they added the FX4400 back in 2004, they also saved money on the 6800 Ultra for $699. The truth is, it seems they are using ea. station as a terminal, in which HP Small Form Factor desktop can do it. Or anything w/ a 350W power supply that can suck in a FX4400 back then. Unless they need Apple for some reason.
 
IceWind said:
Whata waste. Couldn't they just have used a nice high end projector?
Click to expand...

Read the information on there.

1. They wanted a HUGE resolution (25800 x 8000) which would have to be an INSANE projector.

2. The point of the cluster is that each computer only has to do a small part of the workload and display its "piece" of the picture on its associated LCD. there's no way to do that with one projector...one computer would end up having to do the entire workload and store the entire image on it's own which would kill performance. In order to "tile" a huge image like that using one display (like one projector) would require huge amounts of software research and stuff which would easily offset the price you save by getting the projector in the first place.

3. Plus with a projector you can't stand in front of it and point at things and stuff. This appears to be an INTERACTIVE type of display which projectors suck at.
 
Wow, that's awsome. Each 30" seems smaller when in that huge cluster for some reason.
 
Eva_Unit_0 said:
Read the information on there.

1. They wanted a HUGE resolution (25800 x 8000) which would have to be an INSANE projector.

2. The point of the cluster is that each computer only has to do a small part of the workload and display its "piece" of the picture on its associated LCD. there's no way to do that with one projector...one computer would end up having to do the entire workload and store the entire image on it's own which would kill performance. In order to "tile" a huge image like that using one display (like one projector) would require huge amounts of software research and stuff which would easily offset the price you save by getting the projector in the first place.

3. Plus with a projector you can't stand in front of it and point at things and stuff. This appears to be an INTERACTIVE type of display which projectors suck at.
Click to expand...

I read that comment at work but didn't have time to post a response. You sir, have hit just about everything on the head :cool: The other thing is that per area, LCDs are quite a bit cheaper (clustering projectors isn't anything new and has been done before), since projector bulbs don't have as long lifetimes and are expensive/PITA to replace on large scales. The other thing is that the whole project is supposed to be scalable. One machine can run 4 displays if the imaging doesn't require much CPU load, or you could be running top of the line SLI machines onto a single screen for better performance. As far as I'm aware, there is one machine for every two screens, though I could be wrong.

All we need now is somebody to get a chromium enabled game for OSX for some benchies :D
 
Wait a minute, you already have dual CPU, how much more CPU power do you need? Graphics intensive work is not just CPU dependent, it is also highly memory dependent.

I agree the projector idea, whoever suggest it, doesn't make sense. BUt on the other hand, a dual CPU, even use to display two Apple x 30", is still a waste of money.

You mean w/ dual CPU, you can't run 4 display on 1 computer? Using 2 x dual link DVI video card x 2 cards? Why the hell not?
 
Eva_Unit_0 said:
Read the information on there.
3. Plus with a projector you can't stand in front of it and point at things and stuff. This appears to be an INTERACTIVE type of display which projectors suck at.
Click to expand...

ACDs are touch screen? :p
 
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