* [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Curt Olson) [2003.03.20 14:40]: > Martin Spott writes: > > Gene Buckle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > flightgear.distributed.net. :) > > If someone provides a portable distribution mechanism for distributed > > scenery generation, then I think I can provide some horsepower for this, > > The big problem is that scenery building is much more slanted towards > data shuffling (i.e. reading and writing files is typically the > largest component of the task.) There is a computational component > but it is generally small in comparison. When you think about > distributing the tasks, the bottle necks are almost all in the file > loading and saving. > > Locally I have about 220Gb of HD space dedicated towards storing the > original raw data. The intermediate preprocessed form of the data. > The shared edge data. And the final scenery. > > If we get SRTM data for the whole world, that will have to jump up > substantially. > > For scenery building I'd love to have at least an 8-16 node cluster > with really high bandwidth/ low latency net between them, a terrabyte > of scsi disk space, and probably a big air conditioner to keep the > room cool. :-) (Seriously, when you start thinking about building > large clusters of PC's, you quickly get to the point where the largest > cost of the entire system is the cost of keeping it cool.) > > But, in the absence of winning the lottery, I have to live with > whatever hardware I can scrape together. :-)
I agree. The operations are I/O bound, not CPU bound (kind of like a mail server), so a distributed.net-type application would probably prove less beneficial than we would hope. Many universities and research institutions are benefitting from FlightGear's progress. Having the ability to "out-source" much of the hard work of building a flight simulator, it seems like they could afford to donate a small amount of money to enable FlightGear to continue to grow ever-better. Having said that, I would be more apt to support a distributed funding campaign. PS - Speaking of "funding issues", did I see that Steve Baker landed an LGP programming job? PPS - I forget the company, but there's a back-cover ad in the most recent Linux Journals where you can enter to receive a $50K research grant by applying in this company's contest. Long shot, but I thought I'd mention it. ;-) -- Cameron Moore / If a person with multiple personalities threatens \ \ suicide, is that considered a hostage situation? / _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
