“Finally, the promise of supercomputing is now available to the
average PC user. Using Linux and commodity hardware, one can
construct and deploy supercomputer-class computing at a very
competitive cost, and with no sacrifice in functionality.
“Enter Beowulf.”
“Why would you want to have a supercomputer? This is an question
that would generally invoke the same reply as was given by Sir
Edmund Hillary on why he climbed Mt. Everest–“because it is
there”.
“Although in this case, a more apt answer would be “because I
can now have one”.