Posted on 01/27/2004 11:15:48 PM PST by litany_of_lies
Apple To Build A Second Supercomputer At Virginia Tech
ROANOKE, Va. (AP)--After building one of the world's fastest supercomputers on its first try, Apple Computer Inc. is again teaming with Virginia Tech to make another high performance machine using its new 64-bit Xserve G5 computer.
Xserve, a thinner, more compact machine designed for clustering with other computers, will replace the supercomputer Tech built in November using off-the-shelf G5 PowerMacs.
Tech project leader Srinidhi Varadarajan said the university will upgrade from PowerMacs to Xserves in April or May. Tech is still negotiating the price with Apple, though Varadarajan said Monday any additional cost to the school would be "fairly minimal."
Tech's cluster of 1,100 G5s surprised the supercomputing world last year by performing 10.3 trillion operations per second -making it the third-fastest machine in the world. Varadarajan and his staff of student volunteers built it in just weeks for $7 million, a fraction of the cost of traditional supercomputers.
In comparison, the world's fastest machine, Earth Simulator Center in Japan, cost at least $250 million and can run 35.9 trillion operations per second. The next fastest is a $215 million Hewlett-Packard computer at Los Alamos National Laboratory that can complete 13.9 trillion operations per second.
Xserves use the same IBM PowerPC 970 microprocessors and Mac OS X operating system and the upgraded supercomputer will use the same high-speed Infiniband network as the G5.
They're better for supercomputing because they were designed for a network setting, while the PowerMac was built for personal computing, said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.
"Xserves have information displays in the front that tell you what's happening with processors, what's happening with network connections at a glance, while a desktop doesn't do any of that," Schiller said.
And at 1.75 inches thick, the Xserves are built for stacking. They'll effectively shrink Tech's supercomputer to one-third its current size. The specialized components also will produce less heat, work more efficiently and ultimately make a faster machine, Varadarajan said, though he doesn't know how fast.
Jack Dongarra, a computer science professor at the University of Tennessee who compiles an annual list of the top 500 supercomputers, said the announcement suggests that Apple is ready to enter the market of high end computers, an area where the company has had only a minimal presence.
"I think they did surprise a lot of people with their original machine," Dongarra said. "My guess is they're testing the water to see if the community is interested in the kind of machine that Virginia Tech has."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-28-04 0017ET- - 12 17 AM EST 01-28-04
Apple's achievement of assembling the 3rd fastest computer for about 3% of the cost of #1 and #2 appears to be pretty remarkable to this heavy non-techie user. Each Fortune 500 company could have a supercomputer, which for most would be chump change. I'm guessing that they would run Unix and Linux with no sweat.
There would appear to be a big potential pickup from stacking Xserves instead of G5s.
Actually, the Xserves have dual G5 processors.
I suspect they will pick up some speed and could even add a lot more units with the space savings.
I also am wondering how long until Xserve clusters become the standard supercomputer?
I would not short Apple stock anytime soon.
Mac OS-X IS Unix at its core... BSDUnix. So you are right... it will run Unix with no problem.
Actually, the Xserves have dual G5 processors.
Both the G5 desktop they are currently using and the new Xservers have dual processors. Apple has been hinting at a 3Ghz version of the G5 is in the offing... now THAT would add some real speed.
PING!!! ING!! NG! G!
Sorry about the echo...
Let me know by Freepmail if you want on or off the list.
I probably beat
you by one year -- I used to
program the first Mac
in assembler days
when IM was the phone book...
For the last few years,
I have been saying
evil things about Apple.
But, with OS-X,
I'm beginning to
re-think my Apple hatred.
Maybe I'll get one...
About $2.5 million of that original $7 million cost was cooling equipment!
Yep. The big question is can it play tic-tac-toe?
Then I take it someone's written the cooling control routine for PPC Linux? Without it you probably shouldn't try Linux on a G5.
I'm waiting for Jeff Foxworthy to chime in on this one. You know that cluster's going down the first time you hear "Hey, check this out..."
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