Big Mac does 80% of theoretical max (my title)

Wired News ^ | Oct. 15, 2003 | Leander Kahney

[antiRepublicrat]

The brand new "Big Mac" supercomputer at Virginia Tech could be the second most powerful supercomputer on the planet, according to preliminary numbers.

Early benchmarks of Virginia Tech's brand new supercomputer -- which is strung together from 1,100 dual-processor Power Mac G5s -- may vault the machine into second place in the rankings of the worlds' fastest supercomputers, second only to Japan's monstrously big and expensive Earth Simulator.

[antiRepublicrat]

The 80 percent held for just 128 of the processors, but it's unlikely it'll keep that when running the whole 2,200 processors. In any case, I figure if it stays above about 60% (65+ is normal in these configurations) it'll make #2 unless another competitor beats it before November 17 when the next Top 500 comes out.

Supercomputing is getting (relatively) cheap! At $5.5M it's peanuts compared to the other systems in the top 10.

[Always Right]

Downloading MP3's off that sucker will be fast......

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[stainlessbanner]

filing

[Semper Paratus]

Chess anyone?

[Digger]

How many days before the Chi-Coms have this?

[KarlInOhio]

How long before this (or its Intel equivalent) will be the minimum configuration needed to run Windows?

[Cacophonous]

Apropos of nothing, please remember that all dirt roads lead to Virginia Tech.

[Always Right]

How long before this (or its Intel equivalent) will be the minimum configuration needed to run Windows?

It's not?

[bert]

Is Appy the Pappy?

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

How 'bout them Hokies! #3 in the nation in football, #2 in the world with supercomputers!

[RiflemanSharpe]

Game server!!!

[Yo-Yo]

"It is impressive, absolutely impressive what they've done," said Dongarra. "($5.2 million is) a very low number for a computer of this size and power."

Dongarra said the cost is so low he questioned whether the college got a special discount. Lockhart couldn't be reached for an answer.

A quick search on the web shows Mac G5s going for around $3,000 each, and this Big Mac has 1,100 of them connected together. 1,000 X $3,000 = $3.3 million. Throw in $1.9 million for hookup wire...

[elfman2]

By the time my infant is in collage, this will be in his pocket. And he’ll be complaining that it’s too slow.

[elfman2]

" Throw in $1.9 million for hookup wire... "

Software, UPSs, consulting/contractors, etc…

[Warren]

Excellent, they could call it Collusus, or Guardian.

[Graybeard58]

"It is impressive, absolutely impressive what they've done," said Dongarra. "($5.2 million is) a very low number for a computer of this size and power."


...and this "low" number doesn't even include the mail in rebate!

[flashbunny]

UPS shouldn't be an issue - I'd hope they have everything running on the grid with a large deisel (or maybe natural gas / whatever) generator ready to kick in - just a momentary need for power if there is a failure.

Plus these CPU's are a lot less power hungry that the equivalent intel / amd chips, which would have the side benefit of providing heat for the entire buildign if you used them...

[Prince Charles]

The price might be even less than that: Apple offers substantial discounts to educational institutions and teachers.

[fr_freak]

So when will this thing become self-aware and start launching all the missiles?

We now have a governor who knows exactly how to deal with that type of situation.