Powered by pizzas & soda, Virginia Tech builds a supercomputer (Indian know-how)

Indian express ^ | 11/9/03 | SEEMA HAKHU KACHRU

[Mark Felton]

HOUSTON, NOVEMBER 9 : Virginia Tech’s scientists led by 30-year-old Indian American Assistant Professor Dr Srinidhi Varadarajan have amazed the computing industry by putting together the world’s third-fastest supercomputer in a record time of three months, and at record low cost of $5.2 million, using off-the-shelf components.

Most other machines of its class cost upward of $40 million and take years to assemble. Japan’s Earth Simulator, the number one supercomputer, is said to have cost at least $350 million.

The tab was kept low by Varadarajan and his team by using hundreds of student volunteers, who were paid only in soda and pizza for assembling the cluster in less than a month. They ate between 600 and 700 pizzas, Dr Varadarajan, who teaches Computer Science, estimates.

‘‘This is arguably the cheapest supercomputer and is definitely the most powerful home-built supercomputer,’’ adds its architect.

Dean of Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering Prof Hassan Aref calls it ‘‘a groundbreaking project’’ and says the team behind it ‘‘pulled off miracles, raising glass ceilings and opening locked doors’’.

The supercomputer made from 1,100 dual-processor power Mac G5s, nicknamed by some as ‘Big Mac’, ranks third among the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers, many of which handle with ease one trillion calculations per second.

The Top 500 is twice-a-year listing started in 1993 to provide a ‘‘who’s who’’ of hot computers, spotting and tracking trends in high-performance computing. The ranking by the Top 500 project will be officially announced later this month at the supercomputing conference in Phoenix.

Theoretically, Big Mac could handle a potential 17 teraflops, or 17 trillion operations per second. That still falls short of the No. 1 machine, Japan’s Earth Simulator, whose 5,000-plus processors allow it do 35.8 teraflops, with the potential of another five teraflops.

This is followed by two other supercomputers, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, both dedicated to weapons design and running at between 7 and 9 teraflops, according to a widely-accepted ratings list maintained by Big Mac.

‘‘The newly completed supercomputer operates at 9.55 trillion operations a second, or 9.55 teraflops,’’ says Varadarajan, but he says it can go higher.

System optimisation is nearly finished, but ‘‘we still have a few more tricks,’’ he says. ‘‘We’re hoping for a 10 per cent boost, hopefully shortly.’’

According to Varadarajan, ‘‘It all started when the school wrote for a grant to build a new machine to replace a 200-node system which was becoming too small for its computing needs. When the proposal was being finalised, Apple came out with its new 64-bit G-5 Mac which the team found to its liking.’’

The new Dean of Virginia Tech gave permission to build the supercomputer on his first day on the job. Varadarajan ordered the G5s three days after Apple Computer announced them, and key software was written in ‘‘a matter of weeks’’.

‘‘Our goal is to build a world-class supercomputer to enable big science and engineering research at a price well below any comparable centre,’’ says Vardarajan. ‘‘We expect this facility to be a powerful model for universities around the world.’’ (PTI)

[Steve Eisenberg]

Good article. I think that it is perfectly proper for Indians to be proud of the accomplishments of their emigrants, and that the article reflects well on both countries.

[buffyt]

I am quite certain that mine is not the world's fastest computer, but my 22 year old son, the computer genius, just built me a new FAST computer with a 60 GB hard drive, which is great for me, for $250 and he installed wireless broadband internet. It is so fast compared to my old laptop and dial up. It is like heaven. He built himself a computer too. He bought the parts and put them together. Empty case, mother boards, drives, drivers, software, peripherals, etc. It was a mass of nuts, bolts, screws, etc. all over his floor. When he turned it on and got that beep that it booted up, I was so thrilled. I can't even fix a toaster!

[observer5]

MAC ROOLES!

[jra]

Can it beat Pitt?

[jbstrick]

"dittos"

[pointsal]

ping
good job...Virginia Tech

[kenth]

Now, if we could only pay everyone in pizza and soda, and get them to work round the clock, just imagine how cheap everything could be...

[xsmommy]

LMAO!!! loved your response!

[steplock]

"Indian American Assistant Professor Dr Srinidhi Varadarajan"

ANOTHER hyphenated pseudo-race?

Indian-American vs American-Indian vs what-the-F*** ????!

What reason does anyone have to shove the RACE CARD at every story? Except for the old adage...

United we stand - DIVIDED WE FALL!

and no one seems to care .......


.

[Alouette]

Just when you thought salaries for IT professionals couldn't drop any lower, we have geeks who are willing to work for soda and pizza.

[proxy_user]

Interesting. I was talking to a highly successful Indian computer guy (Senior Tech Consulant, Oracle) on Friday, and he admitted that Indians are sometimes a little embarrassed that they cannot achieve more in their own country. They don't get any smarter by coming over here, but our culture is much more conducive to achievement and entrepeneurship.

I say, let 'em come. They are the best immigrants we could possibly get. They have a few bad apples, but who doesn't?

[GummyIII]

I took Fortan IV at Va. Tech in 1980. The ONE computer for the school took up one whole floor of a huge building. I had to do keypunch and, since I was low in the priority list, wait for days sometimes to see that it wouldn't run and have to punch it again....and again....grin. Once I got it right the first time. It's amazing how far it's come. Since their football team lost this weekend, it's a good thing they have something to brag about. ;-)

[GummyIII]

That wouldn't be Sanjiv, would it? (I teach Oracle 9i SQL.)

[Agnes Heep]

What reason does anyone have to shove the RACE CARD at every story?

Agreed. It's almost as if they're implying that people of Indian descent (who, by the way, are Caucasians) aren't usually up to anything this intellectual.

[mlmr]

Remeber folks that in the world of earning power in the US the top earners are: Asians (that includes Indians), then Jews, then Irish, then Italians....I think that was from Sowell...

[Old Professer]

How did you break a toaster?

[craig_eddy]

Only if it can figure out that on 4th and 5 on the opponents 30 yds line w/ only a few minutes to go in a game you're leading, and you have a running back who has over 230 yds rushing for the game, YOU DO NOT ATTEMPT TO THROW THE BALL.

GO HOKIES!!

[_Jim]

CONVEX - anybody remember the CONVEX mini-supercomputers? I had a chance to tour their facilities back in their heyday ...

Related: Supercomputers and Parallel Computers