Not dead, just idle

Idling along
Due to the weather Marks Rpi Cluster has been processing Einstein work in bursts overnight. I've been leaving them idle during the day thanks to the high temperatures.

I run them with a minimal cache setting so they download just enough work to keep each CPU core busy for about 11 hours and then they idle during the hottest part of the day. Normally I run them 24/7 but it doesn't do much for their life span so have been doing this for the summer months.


New Pi?
The Raspberry Pi foundation usually announce new Pis in February so if there is likely to be a new Rpi it will probably get announced next month. Here's hoping.

Christmas eve eve

I had a couple of weeks off so Marks Rpi Cluster was powered down. Its now back up and running on the 12 nodes in my Pi^4 cases. They can handle hot weather.


BitScope Blade Cluster
I need to buy more Pi3's. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a new Raspberry Pi model next year so I have been a bit reluctant to place an order. Well between that and not being around to receive the Pi's and assemble it.

25th of November

Not a great deal to report since the start of the Pi Rack build. I haven't ordered the additional Pi's to finish it off so it has stalled. Maybe Santa will bring some in time for Christmas. I do however have the 12 Pi3 model B+ in my Pi^4 case running 24/7 so there are 48 tasks in progress at any one time.

The Raspberry Pi foundation released the A+ model as the final version of the Pi3 so now we wait for the Pi4 to be released. We will have to wait and see what comes next. I expect it will follow the same form factor as the Pi2 and Pi3 and I am sure they'll use a smaller process to they can cram more into the SoC. My wishlist:

1. More cores.
2. Faster cores.
3. More memory (2GB at least, 4GB would be nice).
4. Faster memory (DDR4 maybe).
5. Faster networking (true gigabit would be nice).

I would note that the Linux kernel has been seeing some changes to support an ARM v8.5 (yet to be announced) so maybe that is what it will get. Hopefully they'll get the operating system into 64 bit mode. The ARM v8 already supports it but Rasbpian is currently a 32 bit operating system.

BitScope Blade Rack 20 build (part 2)

Here is a picture of them without the flash so you can see the LEDs on the Pis. There is also a red LED at the end of each Blade Duo indicating they have power, although you can't see them in this photo as the red power plate covers them.

These 8 Pi3 model B+ have been running for a week or so now and haven't given any invalid results so far. I put that down to the better power supply than my USB chargers.

This is the power supply. These are normally used to run 12v LED lights in your ceiling (sometime called down lights) but this one is a 24 volt 10 amp output to make sure there is enough juice for all 20 Pis.

And this is the way they stand when one puts the rack parts around it. The top and bottom bits of the rack screw into the metal standoffs that you can see.

There is another pair of power plates and their 5 Duo's which stand next to this. However before I can do that I need to order more Pis.