Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Virginia Tech Cluster Moving to Xserve G5s
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
What the devil are you talking about?
Geez people, I'm sorry I had a dissenting opinion about this. I forgot how everybody has to agree on everything in this forum or be ridiculed. I post one message how I think it was silly they did all that work just to have to do it all again and people jump down my throat.
And I thought PC users were intolerant.
Good riddance to you bunch.
Re: will they resell them?
This is great news for Apple, another big sale. Just hope that it will encourage many other schools to do the same. That the "pilgrimages" will result in sales.
Gee now may be my chance to ge a G5.
Originally posted by notjustjay
Does this mean we're going to suddenly see an onslaught of refurbished G5's on the Apple store?
This is great news for Apple, another big sale. Just hope that it will encourage many other schools to do the same. That the "pilgrimages" will result in sales.
Gee now may be my chance to ge a G5.
This isn't a rumor, its a fact. The VT cluster is down right now so that they can do the equipment swap (installing the new G5 XServes). Why is this a "rumor"?
How the hell does 1 college get so much money to buy bragging rights? Maybe all their alumnis are south american drug dealers, or simply Cheney and company...
Damn those lucky Virgin Tech bastards...
Damn those lucky Virgin Tech bastards...
The total cost of the cluster was $5.2 million. That's nothing for a big school like VA Tech. Compare that to the $250 million spent on the #2 Super 'Puter, and $350 million on the Earth Simulator.
??
Well, we had Srinidhi Varadarajan gave a talk recently at our lab describing how they were disassembling the old cluster to upgrade to the G5's Xserves. The VT cluster is down right now for the upgrade. I guess there isn't an official press release, but I guess you'll see eventually that this isn't really a rumor (its in progress right now).
Also, his talk indicated cooling system was designed with the expectation that they would be acquiring an Opteron-based cluster. The cooling capacity is a bit more than absolutely necessary for the desktop G5's, but its considerably more capacity than necessary for the much cooler-running 90nm parts in the new XServe's. However, it was worth it because the labor costs of installing any upgraded to the cooling and electrical system make the
Sorry to quote myself, but I think I remember that most of the money came from a grant? Is that right?
inrease of 12.5%
Since the PowerMac G5 is at 8 terraflops and the Xserve at 9 gigaflops this implies an immediate 12.5% increase in computation power.
That would put the new system much closer to number two. Add in an extra 220 Xserves and you are oh so close to number 2.
Since the PowerMac G5 is at 8 terraflops and the Xserve at 9 gigaflops this implies an immediate 12.5% increase in computation power.
That would put the new system much closer to number two. Add in an extra 220 Xserves and you are oh so close to number 2.
Hee hee. As a Tech student, I am very intersted in what happens to the G5s. I doubt we will see them at the surplus auction anytime soon, but they might appear around campus. Of course, since there is a lot of private investment in these computers, they may go somewhere else all together.
edit: I just read several of the posts knocking on Tech and the point of doing this whole project. I think it is very ignorant to say anything without knowing the whole picture. I have been at Tech for undergraduate and now graduate school, and I still am very limited in what I say to prevent sounding like a fool. The computer, even as is, where it is, has great use. I do know know how it was or if already open for research use, but I do know that several people I spoke to were very excited. For instance, several Biochemist/Molecular Biologists were very excited about access to such computing power. The Supercomputer was put together in the Corporate Research Center where there is both campus and private research.
Let's say that the computer has been totally useless so far...the PR is worth it. How many students who might not have heard of Tech have now applied. A hypothetical student could have went to the Tech webpage to look for the supercomputer information and while he/she was there, he/she found out more about the university and its programs. Also, sucessfully putting this computer together brings in more grant money for research.
There is a huge benefit of the computer for Tech and Blacksburg. I guess I am just a Hokie tried and true, but I really dislike hearing people knock on Tech.
edit: I just read several of the posts knocking on Tech and the point of doing this whole project. I think it is very ignorant to say anything without knowing the whole picture. I have been at Tech for undergraduate and now graduate school, and I still am very limited in what I say to prevent sounding like a fool. The computer, even as is, where it is, has great use. I do know know how it was or if already open for research use, but I do know that several people I spoke to were very excited. For instance, several Biochemist/Molecular Biologists were very excited about access to such computing power. The Supercomputer was put together in the Corporate Research Center where there is both campus and private research.
Let's say that the computer has been totally useless so far...the PR is worth it. How many students who might not have heard of Tech have now applied. A hypothetical student could have went to the Tech webpage to look for the supercomputer information and while he/she was there, he/she found out more about the university and its programs. Also, sucessfully putting this computer together brings in more grant money for research.
There is a huge benefit of the computer for Tech and Blacksburg. I guess I am just a Hokie tried and true, but I really dislike hearing people knock on Tech.
ABSOLUTE TOSH !!! lol.. thats funny! Never heard that insult before!
anyway. back on point! True true. memory errors happen, I am merely pointing out that desktop machines tend not to need ECC memory and if good quality memory is used tend not to see or have any memory problems. If you disagree with this , debate it with pretty much every manufacturer out there that ship desktop machines without ECC memory.
AMD Athlon MP boards originally shipped without ECC memory support for workstations. A lot of Intel Xeon mobo manufacturers support non ecc memory and do not support Ecc memory, IWILL, MSI etc.. Then there are manufacturers like Tyan etc.. who shipped more server orientated boards that supported ECC memory.
In a workstation setup it isn't needed. in a server, cluster definately. Maybe im lucky but I have an Athlon MP workstation thats sitting there nicely running FreeBSD with 2 gigs of non ECC memory. Hasn't been rebooted in well over a 7 months. Hasn't seen the slightest glitch with memory. And yes you can tell when memory starts to act up. Usually memory errors occur not because of age but because of heat. Heat in a workstation tends not to be as big as a problem as in a 1u node or cluster or server box where everything is crammed together. In a workstation box like G5 where there is good airflow i serious seriously doubt you are ever going to see any problems with memory. Just my two cents. Feel free to disagree with me and others about it but please do so in a polite way. My opinions are my opinions... not tosh! thanks very much!
Regards
i_wolf
P.S. my take from the beginning was that a cluster of the size of virginia tech needs ECC memory, but not for workstation use of FCP on a single PowerMac etc... I stand by this. This has also been debated over at Macnn, where most people agree that ECC is not needed in PowerMac.