Dual Processor Nodes for HPC Clusters: Network Connections

Douglas Eadline, Ph.D.

deadline@basement-supercomputing.com

Abstract:

Tests were run to determine the effect of sharing an Ethernet interface on a dual SMP node. The tests, as expected, indicate interface contention on the shared interface. Both Netperf and Netpipe tests were run on three different motherboard/chipset systems. The use of two Ethernet interfaces with the NAS test suite was explored. The results indicate dual SMP systems can benefit from multiple interfaces.