Just remember, IBM is not sitting down. They are designing their own supercomputers using the same chips that power the xServe. I suspect the computer that defeats the Earth Simulator will will be an IBM, not a Mac.
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UMaine Building 256 Node G5 Supercomputer
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whooleytoo said:
I think you'll find most of those project authors listed on this pages as well: http://www.clusters.umaine.edu/about_us.php
nagromme said:
Last year the server market was worth $46 billion, that it is a lot of servers and a lot of processors. If Apple are tapping that market , and the signs are that they are starting to make inroads then the sales might not be as small as you might think.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/02/27/server_vendors_cheer_strong_q4/
Oh and another thing, I don't believe for one minute that Apple will release the new iMac at anything less than a single 2ghz processor. It would just be like shooting their own foot if they did. Apple will need a 2ghz processor to get anywhere with consumer sales and they know it.
go apple, but dude with all these super computers being powered by apple stuff how long will it take for normal ppl to receive their computers
JW Pepper said:
Clearly the higher the GHz the more will sell--but I don't the difference will be that great. Apple will sell a 1.x G5 if they have to, and that's a marketing challenge that's only getting easier as people slowly realize MHz isn't what to look for in a computer.
And if IBM is having trouble making enough 2.x G5x, then that's a reason Apple MIGHT have to put 1.x in the first G5 Macs.
And for most users, the difference in speed is irrelevant--the other features of the system matter more. We aren't all running 500 MB Photoshop files or rendering 3D movie effects.
Also, a new G4 iMac wouldn't shock me--I expect a G5, but a G4 at a cheap price (or a choice of G4/G5) could be just fine. Again--pure marketing: position the G5 for pros and power users if you have to.
I believe the reason they are picking 256 nodes is because the US government use to require an inordinate amount of paperwork to justify the need for more than 256 nodes. I doubt they (US GOV) have changed much since I had to look into this a couple of years ago.
Though I could be wrong, maybe they just like the number 256!
Though I could be wrong, maybe they just like the number 256!
Just imagine the inroads Apple might make with offering these server clients a LOW cost G5 'enterprise' box.
robertgreen94 said:I believe the reason they are picking 256 nodes is because the US government use to require an inordinate amount of paperwork to justify the need for more than 256 nodes. I doubt they (US GOV) have changed much since I had to look into this a couple of years ago.
Though I could be wrong, maybe they just like the number 256!
The number 256 is not entirely arbitrary. 256 is a perfect square, which makes for nice, neat problem decomposition.
Plus, the price was right.
We looked at buying more nodes of a different architecture, but the Xserves optimized our A/C and power for the room. If we had the facilities, and the budget for a MACH5, we would have bought it ourselves.
Indeed. IBM is hard at work on BlueGene/L that will soundly kick Earth Simulator from the number one position before it's even completed. As it is now, there are two BlueGene/L prototypes on the Top10-list, and they are only a small part of the completed machine which will consist of approximately 130 000 custom built dual core PowerPC 440 processors running at 700 MHz. They are aiming at 350 Tflops next year.wordmunger said:
IBM will sell a lot of BlueGene type super computers due to its unprecedented computing density. And.. on top of that we'll probably see some PowerPC 970 based supercomputers based on their JS20 Blade Center (the lastest using 2.2 GHz 970FX). There's actually one JS20 based supercomputer on the Top500 list already and it's Russias Joint Supercomputer Center in Moscow, using just 168 processors (84 JS20 blade modules). Expect more of those, and perhaps some POWER5 based too.
If this is a new niche market for Apple I really hope that they will design a sexy rack cabinet. These open racks which shows endless cluster nodes, switches and cables running are geeky enough but they are not sexy. Look at super computers from Sun, SGI or even IBM.. they are really stylish, and I wish that Apple could make something similar. I almost expect them to do it.
For those of you who are savvy with 3D apps, if you need suggestions for doing a cool Apple product, make this: A cool rack cabinet, the Apple way.
Heh! It's pretty cool the guys working on the cluster are here in the forums.
So, here's some things we need to know:
1) XBench scores..
2) Halo framerates.
3) The combined wind-power of 256 XServes' fans (if you don't know this off hand, maybe you can calculate it.. maybe you have a calculator nearby? )
4) Boot times.
5) The name of the guy who has to run around and hit the power button on all the machines.
6) The average air-speed velocity of an unladen sparrow - particularly when flying with (3) as a tailwind.
I'm sure others can come up with more...
So, here's some things we need to know:
1) XBench scores..
2) Halo framerates.
3) The combined wind-power of 256 XServes' fans (if you don't know this off hand, maybe you can calculate it.. maybe you have a calculator nearby?
)4) Boot times.
5) The name of the guy who has to run around and hit the power button on all the machines.
6) The average air-speed velocity of an unladen sparrow - particularly when flying with (3) as a tailwind.
I'm sure others can come up with more...
whooleytoo said:
I believe it would be an uladen swallow. But then of course you'd have to differentiate between African or European.
whooleytoo said:Heh! It's pretty cool the guys working on the cluster are here in the forums.
So, here's some things we need to know:
1) XBench scores..
2) Halo framerates.
3) The combined wind-power of 256 XServes' fans (if you don't know this off hand, maybe you can calculate it.. maybe you have a calculator nearby?
4) Boot times.
5) The name of the guy who has to run around and hit the power button on all the machines.
6) The average air-speed velocity of an unladen sparrow - particularly when flying with (3) as a tailwind.
I'm sure others can come up with more...
1) In due time.
2) Halo a game? Sheesh, we're a university. We don't have time to play games, and can't afford it after dumping out the money for this machine!
3) I'm sure we can calculate it based on the CFM of the machine. I know that when idle, these things are HOT.
4) Unknown for a couple of weeks. We'll be trying out a bunch of different things, most notably diskless nodes.
5) No one needs to press reset. We have remote power on/off equipment that can control every port in the cluster. I insisted on it this time 'round.
6) No supercomputer can determine this answer.
BlkBear said:
How about RED STORM 10'000 Opteron CPU's using CRAY interconects, if anything will take number 1 it wont be by an Apple machine. And dont confuse a cluster with a REAL supercomputer as they are two completly different things, a cluster may have higher CPU performance but a true supercomputer will have much higher bandwidth, I/O and lower latency.
Skraemer123 said:
If you look again, you'll see, that the air intakes are even larger than on the normal G5 servers. it's just that they dont have two big holes but many tiny ones. But the G4 had 4 HDs with tiny holes, the G5 has 3 Hds with two big ones in between and the new node has only on HD with the rest of the space as one big hole. I could imagine that you make the choice for small holes like this whe you want to hold back large particles of dust... (even though they probably stand in a controlled environement at most places anyway)
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This doesn't surprise me at all. I think we're going to see a lot more of these types of clusters popping up due to the precedence VTech set as well as the obviously low costs involved with building a G5 supercomputer. I'll be curious to see their benchmarks.
So when do the 2.5 GHz G5 xServes come out?
So when do the 2.5 GHz G5 xServes come out?
Sigh.. can't be all that fast then..clusterman said:
clusterman said:2) Halo a game? Sheesh, we're a university. We don't have time to play games, and can't afford it after dumping out the money for this machine!
Oh, come on.. you know you want to be kicking some spotty teenager's ass online, and are just waiting for him to say "Well.. I'm playing on a top of the line Alienware rig, what are YOU playing on?..."
clusterman said:
Pretty noisy too, I'd imagine.
clusterman said:
Interesting.. I guess you'd probably want everything in RAM anyhow - disk latencies being what they are.
clusterman said:
I kinda suspected as much - though I seriously wouldn't want to be the one who trips and hits THAT button by accident!
clusterman said:
That statement is only true outside a Jobsian Reality Distortion Field..
Additional webcam
Hiya dedicated fans:
We've added an additional webcam for you to feast your eyes on:
http://www.clusters.umaine.edu/~wages/cam2/
This shows the second half of our Xserve build, and peeks into our old P3 cluster, Blackbear.
Hiya dedicated fans:
We've added an additional webcam for you to feast your eyes on:
http://www.clusters.umaine.edu/~wages/cam2/
This shows the second half of our Xserve build, and peeks into our old P3 cluster, Blackbear.
