[ILUG] Have you had your daily dose of reality?

[Paul Jakma]

With all the talk of Sun E10k's, I feel i have to mention Tru64
clustering and tandem kit.

Firstly: The E10K is not a HA setup. It's a parallel machine. It's far
more suited to computing than HA.

Tru64 clustering: you get a bunch of Tru64 machines, and you end up with
what looks like one machine to the outside world. One load-balanced IP
address. The machines don't even have to be in the same data center.

If something breaks, replacing it isn't a problem. I'll bet an
AlphaServer DS20 costs less than an E10K system board. A bunch of 10/20K
pound machines in a cluster makes a lot more sense than one great big
vulnerable system.

Next tandem tech: don't know much about it, but it's even more hard
core. Eg the Alpha cpu has lock-step capability. Ie 2+ cpu's are locked
to each other stepping through the same instructions. They're all locked
to each other running the same code. You could literally put a bullet
through one cpu, and your code will keep running.

-paul jakma...

(not that i'm biased or anything...)