Makers of white-box supercomputers hit their stride

CNET ^ | May 10, 2004 | Michael Kanellos

[Leroy S. Mort]

Thunder, a supercomputer recently installed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is possibly the second-most powerful computing machine on the planet--and it was built by a company with about as many employees as a real estate office.

California Digital, a 55-person company located on the outskirts of Silicon Valley, created Thunder from 1,024 four-processor Itanium 2 servers to perform a variety of tasks at the lab. Capable of churning 19.94 trillion operations per second, it would have ranked second in the Top 500 list of supercomputers published bi-annually by the University of Mannheim, the University of Tennessee and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, had it made the deadline.

The key to the setup, and many like it, is to use the Linux operating system to lash together a lot of comparatively cheap, off-the-shelf hardware to quickly create computers with enough power to simulate the potential effects of explosions or crunch data on galaxy formation. The machines can cost millions of dollars, but they're still about a third less expensive than traditional supercomputers of comparable power.

[Leroy S. Mort]

If I'm not mistaken, this is about twice as powerful as the much-publicized Apple G5-based supercomputer at Va. Tech.

[anniegetyourgun]

But THIS is so much more important. </sarcasm]

[citizen]

Fascinating article, thanks

[Blood of Tyrants]

Yea, but how many gigaquads can it store?

[Leroy S. Mort]

Hah! I loved the one comment posted on that article you referenced about HP's new built-to-order gaming machines:

will it suck...

like just about everything else HP?

Hardware, Crap
Support, Crap
Service, Crap

do yourself a favor and buy a whitebox, best hardware, best service, best support. big business cannot compete on anything except price and that is not enough anymore.

Being a whitebox builder myself, I couldn't agree more. Heh!

[Reelect President Dubya]

But THIS is so much more important. < sarcasm>

Actually, it is gamers, who adopt new technology when it is new and pay top dollar for it who subsidized the development and economy of the technology used in this cluster.

Personally, I am grateful to them.

[antiRepublicrat]

But Bush tells us Linux isn't any good for serious stuff. There must be something wrong with this cluster. Windows is best for everything, only the idiots who build supercomputing clusters in the top 50 haven't realized that yet.

BTW, notice that the guy who built the VA Tech cluster is the CTO of the company that built this one? The guy's getting around.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Sounds like Steve Jobs needs to pony up another 1,000 or so G5's then.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Linux has always been good for grunt work like this. I don't think even Bush2000 would dispute that.

[Lurking in Kansas]

Yeah, but how many songs can I download onto it?

[Leroy S. Mort]

Use the Mac G5 at Va Tech for that. The songs will only cost you 99 cents a download and for every 500 G5's you buy, you get a free iPod.

[Billthedrill]

Yeah, yeah, but is it going to be enough to run Longhorn?

[Theo]

How much did each setup cost? I can't find that information anywhere....

[Leroy S. Mort]

Interesting you should say that. I'm currently running Longhorn alpha on a 700Mhz Celeron.

[Billthedrill]

You been following the somewhat, er, "inflated" proposed hardware requirements for Longhorn? I'm thinking somebody may have been pulling a reporter's leg just a little bit there...

[Leroy S. Mort]

A gazillion dollars, but you get a rebate if you sign up with Comcast.

[Theo]

Looks like the Mac system was a bit more than $5 million according to this page: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/22/technology/22SUPE.html?ex=1084334400&en=395c71256fb4fcc3&ei=5070

Not sure the cost of this system.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Fact is, the recommended hardware wont seem so "inflated" in two years.

[Theo]

According to this page -- http://www.midrangeserver.com/mid/mid120303-story03.html -- this newest supercomputer cost about $20 million.

So, the Mac cost 1/4 as much, using off-the-shelf Macs....