Apple powers college supercomputer

[arcos]

Apple powers college supercomputer

Everyone would love a supercomputer but with a price tag of around $100m each they are not easy to come by.

But in the United States staff and students at Virginia Tech have built one of the world's most powerful supercomputers for just $5m by plugging together hundreds of the latest computers from Apple.

<snip>

"Each individual G5 is a dual processor, 2GHZ machine with 4GB of memory. So it's extremely fast," said Pat Arvin, Project Coordinator at Virginia Tech.

<snip>

It has documented how it did this from start to finish so if others want to follow suit, they can send off for a kit that tells them how to do it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3180872.stm

[burrowowl]

1. Love the unofficial

nickname: Big Mac. It does seem to produce a lot of calories.
Chilled water pipes, hmmm.

[priller]

2. Hmm, now we know why Apple's has a long wait time

on the Dual 2Gigs.

[CO Liberal]

3. First Task: Printing Out "BILL GATES SUCKS" 100 Billion Times

:-)

[TeeYiYi]

4. I love this story but I have a question . . .

The supercomputer is comprised of 1,100 G5 computers that uses the same amount of electricity as 3,000 average sized homes. Does that mean that if I were to buy just one of the new Mac G5 towers to replace my G4 that I'm using now, my electric bill would increase to the tune of the cost of approx. 2.72 average sized homes?

Assuming I did my math correctly, could this be true? Anyone?

TYY

[electricmonk]

5. I wondered about that too

Maybe they have to run it through a transformer to power them all at the same time at the exact same frequency and I'm sure they have to have a redundant power supply and back-ups in case of power glitches. Still seems kind of high though. :shrug:

[alfredo]

6. You have to add in the power used by the air conditioning.

From G5 specs
http://www.apple.com/powermac/specs.html

Electrical and environmental requirements


Meets ENERGY STAR requirements


Line voltage: 100-125V AC or 200-240V AC


Frequency: 50Hz to 60Hz, single phase


Maximum current: 6.5A (low-voltage range) or 7.5A (high-voltage range)


Operating temperature: 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C)


Storage temperature: -40° to 116° F (-40° to 47° C)


Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing


Maximum altitude: 10,000 feet

[TeeYiYi]

7. Thanks electricmonk and alfredo . . .

You are probably right about the AC alfredo but the quote:

"The power supply was another huge challenge. The supercomputer uses the same amount of electricity as 3,000 average sized homes."

. . . should probably be more specific in defining the term 'supercomputer'. If the definition of supercomputer in this case includes the air conditioning and water cooling and, who knows, overhead lighting, burglar alarm, etc. they should say so. IMO

TYY

[alfredo]

10. The Air Conditioning should be considered

part of it, like adding bigger fan, or hard drive.


BTW, look at the fans they use in the G5's. It's like a wind tunnel inside. Runs quiet though.

[alfredo]

8. I wonder if they get the free upgrade to Panther?

I'm thinking about getting a 12" powerbook.

I have thee Mac's here, I wonder how hard it would be to cluster them?

[TeeYiYi]

9. Not likely . . .

re: free upgrade to Panther. *lol*

Apple was real shitty about the Jaguar upgrade. They'll make them buy 1,100 new copies at the bulk discount.

I am looking forward to Panther though.

Very kewl about the Powerbook. I wouldn't mind the 17''. I wonder how long it will be before there is a G5 Powerbook. If they run as hot as it appears, I don't know if a G5 laptop would be feasable.

I don't think clustering macs is supposed to be difficult at all. Check out the Apple discussion boards.

TYY

[alfredo]

11. It shouldn't be too hard. there is software for it

but I think it costs more than I would want to spend.

Pooch:
http://www.hoise.com/primeur/01/articles/monthly/AE-PR-11-01-60.html

[priller]

12. I have a brand spankin' new 17" PB on my desk right now

and this thing is incredible!!! With the Radeon 9600 in it, games run extremely well. Just take plenty of batteries if you're going to be away from a plug.

[alfredo]

13. I saw the 17" at compUSa. Beautiful.

I might even take a look at the iBooks too. , but the 12" PB is so nice.

[Atlant]

14. The 12" PowerBook is sweet!

The 12" PowerBook is sweet; I bought one for my son for college
and he's enjoying it very much.

Meanwhile, I'm typing on a brand-new 15" PowerBook with
1.25GHz, 1GB, 80GB of 5400 RPM disk, the Superdrive, and
the glow-in the dark keyboard. It's even sweeter!

Atlant

[alfredo]

15. 300 Dells $38 million, 3 teraflops - 1,100 Macs $5 million

17.6 Terraflops Now don't tell me Macs are too expensive.

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2003/09/29/daily37.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3180872.stm

I guess any state that would elect George Bush as Governor would also make a dumb decision on building a super computer.