Subject: Gaussian, Linda, and PC clusters

From: dominic ditoro <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 06:20:16 -0500

We have ~10k$ to spend in the near future at which point it evaporates... We
are considering purchasing a cluster of fast PC's, say 4 machines initially
(700 Mhz or so, 256Mb, 8 GB), to run Gaussian using linux and Linda. Has
anyone had any experience with this sort of configuration. We guess that it
will be roughly 5-7 times faster than our present single 400 Mhz machines.
We don't have the resources to endlessly baby sit the cluster. So the ease
of use is as important as performance. Our vision is that compiled code will
arrive from Gaussian, we install the appropriate linux os, load the code and
start computing. Is this living in dreamland?

Finally, any experience with running highlevel methods, e.g. G2, on a
cluster?

Either public or private responses are welcome. I will summerize.

Dominic M. Di Toro
Professor
Environmental Engineering
Manhattan College, Riverdale NY
[email-masked]