“DIY” and “supercomputer” aren’t words typically used together.
But a do-it-yourself supercomputer is exactly what students built at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, using 16 NVIDIA Jetson Nano modules, four power supplies, more than 60 handmade wires, a network switch and some cooling fans.
The project, dubbed SMU’s “baby supercomputer,” aims to help educate those who may never get hands-on with a normal-sized supercomputer, which can sometimes fill a warehouse, or be locked in a data center or in the cloud.
Instead, this mini supercomputer fits comfortably on a desk, allowing students to tinker with it and learn about what makes up a cluster. A touch screen displays a dashboard with the status of all of its nodes.
“We started this project to demonstrate the nuts and bolts of what goes into a computer cluster,” said Eric Godat, team lead for research and…
