> // ...is the idea that you would only want to cpu(1) to another > // machine because of the services or network topology you > // (as a human) want rather than just to find more grunt. > > Certainly originally cpu(1) was frequently used simply to get to a > bigger machine. That's the way many of the early docs describe its > use, and was also the practice at the Labs a decade ago. This use has > become less common (at least for me) as terminals become so much more > powerful.
it's all about the io. at home i have a pretty symmetric situation. all the cpu servers and terminals have an equally slow connection to the fileserver. i would imagine most people have a similar situation at home. then it might matter who has cycles to burn, if the fs still isn't the bottleneck. at coraid, one cpuserver has a 10gbe connection to the fileserver, many have a gbe connection to the fileserver, and several are on the wrong side of a wireless link. there is a performance heirarchy, but it has nothing to with processing power. - erik
