Bumping an old closed topic…
Embree: A Kernel Framework for Efficient CPU Ray Tracing was ported to the xeon phi so this means that there are several 3D Software Packages that can leverage the Xeon Phi’s - Autodesk Maya, VRay 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, LuxRender… Not sure how this compares to gpgpu yet as it is just kind of an aside as I get my first compute node up and running but it looks quite interesting for artist/computer geeks.
My current build as it sits -
Supermicro X9DRG-QF
2 - E5 2670 SR0KX,
64GB ECC DDR3,
2 Xeon Phi’s (31SP)
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4 will fit on the board but until I can build a workstation node it will have 3 and an old GTX580.
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A couple of ssd’s for boot (need to get a few nvme disks in raid 0 for scratch - SM has a two port card. HP and DELL have created x16 cards for 4 nvme m.2 but proprietary firmware).
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A few terabytes of disk for storage.
Networking :
Planning on QDR IB (IB/RDMA/NFS)
4036 switch (4036E would be nicer but twice the price - 10gbe ethernet bridge is nice though).
KVM as Hypervisor, Centos for Dom0,
Centos VM for Compute Node (intel supports redhat libs so redhat/centos/fedora) - wine for windows required
PfSense - Virtualized Firewall or on a cheap 2U.
FileServer will be some version of solaris (best support for zfs/ib
ZFS on SM216 - 24 2.5" Bay
mirrored striped ssds - likely 850’s with zeusram or a 3700 for slog.
( Either Napp-It or build a Napp-It clone on Solaris)