Canonical, to speed up its development and testing of Ubuntu on ARM, has created a 21-computer PandaBoard build cluster. The cluster consists of 20 slave PandaBoards, each outfitted with a dual-core 1GHz OMAP4430 processor and 1GB of RAM, a single “Master Panda” controller, 20 hard drives, 24 serial relays, and just two power supplies: one 12V, one 5V. The end result isn’t pretty, but it does fit inside a 4U rackmount case.

Ostensibly, the Panda builder is designed to speed up the compilation of Ubuntu’s 20,000 software packages. Canonical, with its Unity interface, is obviously after a slice of the ARM-powered netbook and tablet pie, and so it makes sense to have a dedicated ARM build cluster. It’s not entirely clear why Canonical isn’t just cross-compiling using faster x86-based machines — but it’s probably for quality assurance. Still, a faster and just-as-safe solution could almost certainly be built using a distcc ARM/x86 chimera — but that wouldn’t be anywhere near as cool as a Panda supercomputer.

If you’re looking for more details about the Panda buildbot, check out This 8-bit Life, which recently interviewed the man behind the machine, David Mandalla. The exact details are a bit foggy, but it sounds like package developers will be able to contact the build cluster’s master controller and request time with one of the Panda boards. The master controller then trips a relay to reset a slave board, issues commands to format the board’s hard drive, and then copies over an image of a pristine build environment. Once the build board is clean and ready to go, the developer can then use it to build perfect, secure PPAs for Ubuntu ARM. There’s no mention of when the Panda cluster will go live, but it looks like it’s nearing completion.

Read more about the PandaBoard, or see more pictures at David Mandalla’s blog