A Cluster Thing
We have a lot of desktop computers that are past their prime. At this moment, they are sitting unused, just waiting to be dealt with in some manner. Some of them still have some life left in them in some capacity, but some of them are ready to move on to their next phase of life. Whether that phase of life is an a new home, or into the great recycling center in the sky, the time is here.
So I was thinking about what a shame it was to have all of this aggregate computing power, but scattered on machines that are, by today’s standards, slow. I started to seriously contemplate putting them together in some sort of cluster, but lack the free time or the technical expertise to get them going on my own. Unfortunately, I don’t have a whole lot of time to just play, either. It occurred to me that perhaps this would be a good project for some of our students.
I mentioned it on Friday, and over the weekend much research was done and yesterday they started finding the controller computer. Yesterday, they managed to locate a good performing machine, get an extra hard drive, and find some memory too. They are ready to go and are excited. As such, I am excited too. Now there are drawings, plans and some buzz around. The thought of La Junta, Colorado having a “supercomputer” is appealing on a variety of levels. To me, having a supercomputer created and maintained by our students purely for discovery purposes is even better.
One of the important features of my job is making technology accessible to all of our students. Most of our students use the computers for their work and creative projects. We have so many resources that go unused, I am so pleased that some of it can possibly be put to some educational use.
Stay tuned for updates, it’s going to be an interesting few weeks.