Opus Video Wall Cluster

Opus is a 16+1 500MHz K6-2 cluster with a 6,400x4,800 pixel video wall that is located at the University of Kentucky in the KAOS Lab. It has two networks, a traditional 100-BaseT ethernet (1 NIC/PC + a switch), and an Aggregate Function Network, built from five PAPERS 960801 modules.

Other Facts About Opus...

The PCs were originally donated by AMD in the Fall of 1998 as 350MHz K6-2 systems, where it was first assembled at Purdue University in the Parallel Processing Laboratory. At that time, it's video wall consisted of nine 640x480 pixel black and white video projectors and a rear-projection screen donated by Draper. Opus was first publicly demonstrated at our booth at SC98 where it's video wall was augmented by 3 color projectors borrowed for the show.

In the Fall of 1999, Opus was moved to the University of Kentucky along with Prof. Dietz and Tim Mattox. The black and white projectors where replaced by an array of 16+2 monitors just in time for the Engineering Day 2000 public demonstration. The rear projection screen awaits donations of color video projectors. :-) Actually, when we did get the color projectors in 2001, we instead used them with a bunch of 1GHz Athlon laptops.

In the Summer of 2000, Opus was upgraded to 500MHz K6-2 processors that were donated by AMD.

Opus was decomissioned in 2005, but its hardware still lives. The nice 17" CRTs and well-loaded K6-2 boxes are certainly not state of the art now, but they are quite usable. Thus, they are now the core systems in the OCL (Open Computing Lab), which often has strange hardware being used with them, etc. They are quite nice boxes for hacking purposes....


The Aggregate. The only thing set in stone is our name.