the real problem is not to generate 1M outgoing connections, but to handle 1M incoming connections on a single node (C1M), while in addition also doing some meaningful processing.

It's a solved problem for me. That is why I don't understand why many high profile realtime web startups (like Convore), still using inferior solutions, like Python eventlib or gevent, which at most let them handle hundreds-to-thousands of clients.

EDIT: metabrew has very good tutorial - which should be a starting point for everybody new to this space!