Hey Apple, when can I get an Xserve...

[bigwig]

like this. 512 CPUs, 24 TB memory, hundreds of 15,000 RPM disc drives.

 

[jane doe]

like this. 512 CPUs, 24 TB memory, hundreds of 15,000 RPM disc drives.

Right now. VA. Tech built one...

 

[katie ta achoo]

Ooo... I want one, even though I don't really know what it's for and would only fill up about 30 gigs of it.

*drool*

When I'm crazy, old, and rich (IN THAT ORDER.) I'll get one.

 

[jared_kipe]

You look like you're already there.

 

[jeremy.king]

http://www.cse.uiuc.edu/turing/
http://www.tcf.vt.edu/systemX.html

 

[velocityg4]

Just think of the framerates you could get in Half Life 2 on that baby. :drool:

 

[carlos700]

Just think of the framerates you could get in Half Life 2 on that baby. :drool:

Since Half Life or any game can take advantage of one or two CPUs plus the Intel Itanium 2 is a very poor performer when running 32-Bit Windows Programs. To summarize: terrible frame rates.

 

[snkTab]

The VT one has more that 2200 2.3Ghz processors in more than 1100 xserves. Each Xserve having 4 Gigs of memory.

 

[bigwig]

The VT one has more that 2200 2.3Ghz processors in more than 1100 xserves. Each Xserve having 4 Gigs of memory.

Except it isn't tightly integrated like a NUMA machine is. Each Xserve can only access it's own local memory and discs. Big iron like this really is different; a 512-cpu NUMA machine is hardly the equivalent of 512 PCs. Individually the PCs may be faster at some things (like integer computation). Considered as a collective they're often a lot slower, especially on I/O (where the PCs get their heads handed to them) and on data sets too large to fit in a mere 4 GB of RAM (note the Altix maxes out at 48 GB per cpu).