Virginia Tech Supercompuer - Now at #3?

This placing has changed, what, 4, times? I mean, we don't we wait another week or so to the final results are in?

Sort of like listening to bits of a sports match on the radio--we can't see any of the details, all we get are nonfinal scores every once in a while.

I'm waiting for the ESPN recap, and to find out how well all the other teams scored, for that matter--there could be plenty of new fast clusters around the world (not in Texas, though).

Tearing up the teraflops

Go Big Mac!!

You bewdy!

lets not get grumpy about all the different benchmark numbers...

whats a few teraflops between friends?

Since Panther this speed increase???

Go SuperComputer...

Though why not wait till the *offical* numbers are put out... I'd rather not like to see Big Mac at 10 instead of #3...

¿How many Teraflops has my Pismo G3 500? it has 256MB of ram!

no sweat...

by the time we get to november, it'll be in first place. Think about it... a TeraFlop or two a week, you can go far with that.
lol

go Bic Mac

Originally posted by MrMacman
Go SuperComputer...

Though why not wait till the *offical* numbers are put out... I'd rather not like to see Big Mac at 10 instead of #3...

Click to expand...

why?, well to build up the suspense of course . MR knows how to milk its cow .

#3 would be great, it would show how effective macs can be as supercomputers, and how low cost they are for the performance you get.

and something else...

If Apple is smart, they've flooded that VTech Campus with Apple Hardware Engineers straight from California, to try and max that sucker out until there isn't one single processor cycle left to run the dock bounce effect...

The theoretical peak performance of the VT cluster is 17.6 teraflops. In a test with only 128 processors active, they achieved a real performance of about 80% of the theorectical value (80% of what 128 processors could theoretically do). Usually, the more processors you have, the harder it is to get close to the theoretical values.

With 9.5 teraflops, they are now at roughly 54%, which is still rather low, so on can expect some more improvement if everything goes well (and they don't miss the deadline). The biggest Intel (2304 Xeons) cluster achieves 74% of its theoretical value, which corresponds to 7.6 teraflops.

If they could get to 80% they would be at 14 teraflops or second place (there is one at 13.8). But there is no chance that they will become number one, they would have to exceed their theoretical performance.

Another thing that makes the race so interesting, that, although initially their numbers were compared to a list published in June, they are not the only who have started building a supercomputer since then, and other people have been providing new results as well.

And BTW, they have been running a beta version of Panther from the beginning.

Bah, I posted the 9.555 TFlops number on MacRumors message board a couple days ago.

Methinks someone at MacBid must have read it.

Sucks to be a Naysayer doesn't it

I knew they could do better than 42% efficiency. The last numbers we saw (around 8.4Tflops iirc) were 48%, and the latest is nearly 54%. 3 more days to eek out a few more optimizations and we may even see 10 Tflops .

Originally posted by MrMacman
Go SuperComputer...

Though why not wait till the *offical* numbers are put out... I'd rather not like to see Big Mac at 10 instead of #3...

Click to expand...

Well, if they aren't on these preliminary lists yet, then they had better get it together as they only have 3 days left in October...

#2 mostly

http://wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,60821,00.html

Originally posted by macmax
#2 mostly

http://wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,60821,00.html

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As I said before, these numbers were based on a preliminary test running only 128 processors and a comparison of theoretical peak performances.

Imagine that, a panther running that fast on the world's most famous junk food

M.

(sorry for the lame joke - couldn't resist)

Well, if we keep up like this, there is a nice chance to see "Big Mac" in 2end place, come November.

aethier

how many bounce do you think it takes for safari to load on that machine...ha ha ha

Umm...

Wasn't the deadline Oct. 1? I know they're tweaking the numbers, but the final list submissions have already been sent in, which would place the cluster at between #4 to #6. Or are they allowed to adjust their numbers until Nov. 5?

I'm confused...

-John

Originally posted by manu chao
But there is no chance that they will become number one, they would have to exceed their theoretical performance.

Click to expand...

Dude, I know you mean well, but you obviously haven't seen the trendline. We're gaining 2Teraflops every week or two. This time next year we'll be at 100 TFlops or so. Theory, shmeory! #1 is obviously within our grasp!

I mean, jeez, it's like you can't read a simple linear extrapolation of a trend line. And I bet you call yourself an engineer!

Re: Umm...

Originally posted by BurntCalc
Wasn't the deadline Oct. 1? I know they're tweaking the numbers, but the final list submissions have already been sent in, which would place the cluster at between #4 to #6. Or are they allowed to adjust their numbers until Nov. 5?

I'm confused...

-John

Click to expand...

I believe the machine had to be assembled and have preliminary results by Oct 1. The final results deadline is apparently a bit later.

Whichever spot it ends up in, you can be sure that Apple's gonna hype it.

But you won't be able to buy your own cluster at the Apple Store!