Imagine, a 12-node Linux cluster to a single large motherboard. Though this may seem like something that would be many years off, one start-up company figured that this highly condensed idea might just pay off. If it proves to be successful, this could be the boost needed to jump-start the demand for workstations again on the open market.

Startup Orion Multisystems Inc. hopes to revive the workstation market with a design that shrinks a 12-node Linux cluster to a single large motherboard. The company is targeting vertical markets with a desktop that sells for less than $10,000 and a 96-node desk-side system priced under $100,000.

Orion leveraged the de facto cluster standard of X86 nodes linked over Gigabit Ethernet interconnects running Linux with Message Passing Interface (MPI) software libraries. The result is a single system that avoids the complexities of configuring a cluster of off-the-shelf PCs that may use different chip sets, hard drives or BIOS versions.