just a crazy question

[Robert LaMarca]

Hi all..

Was planning to use Python (maybe C later) to mock parallel processing project.. About to put together a set of computers for this.. Wondered if anyone had any knowledge or ideas about using a playstation running linux?

My first impressions are that it is interesting.. for $400, one can get access to 6 smps under linux..

For about $300-$600 one could build basic x86 node..... probably between 2 and 4 cores on the x86 node, though the quads are still a bit pricey.

Upside of PS3... lotsa cores for less... Downside.. less, a lot less RAM.. Of course, the PS3 does not allow access to the graphics, but for my purposes, I don't mind that..

So.. how is Python for memory management? ...

My plan is to try measuring the memory usage of my python code elements and take a guess as to how it might perform on a cell-system.. . naturally a good idea in any event.. But.. Just thought maybe someone out in Python world would have an idea?

Thanks!

Best
Robert

 

[Jonathan Gardner]

So.. how is Python for memory management? ...

Terrible. If you have a memory-intensive application, use ASM (perhaps
C), not Python (or any other high-level language for that matter.)

My plan is to try measuring the memory usage of my python code elements and take a guess as to how it might perform on a cell-system.. . naturally a good idea in any event.. But.. Just thought maybe someone out in Python world would have an idea?

This probably won't work at all as expected. If you wanted to get
Python processes to run on the cells, you'd probably need a special
interpreter written with that in mind. My memory of how the cell
technology works is that there is really a tiny amount of memory in
each cell and you need to think at a fundamentally low level to get
anything useful done.

I'm extremely interested in what you discover, and I'm sure others are
well. I'd love to be proven wrong in my assumptions. So keep us posted
when you find something interesting or useful.