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Virginia Tech Supercomputer Cluster Photos
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Re: You can never have too many G5s
Exactly... They could fit a lot more into a much smaller area if they were all dual Xserver G5's. Any guestimations how many xservers would fit in one of those racks?
anyone know what sort of performance this thing with throw out? i was trying to find some info on the site. i know that its not an exact science but how much power are they looking for? i assume because of the name we are looking at a multi teraflop machine, but any numbers?
That's nice they're putting pictures up. What was the largest number of Macs used in a cluster before this? I seem to remember a project called Appleseed where they would hook up numerous Power Macs. Also, I think Apple should sell that shirt on it's web site. They would sell a ton!
assuming the DP G5 Xserve would be a 2U box, maybe 15~20? Not sure how many U those racks are. (I'm visually estimating 5 or 6 per "block", but remove the shelves, and you could squeeze a few more in).
Are those standard rack towers? If they're 48U racks, then you could fit 24 @ 2U each....
It would still take 45.8 of those racks to assemble 1,100 machines...!
as it is, it takes *122* of those rack units to house the beast @ 9-per rack.... amazing quantities of hardware...
Hey, I'll have one of those, thank you! Let the market wait....
Unfortunately, the pictures over there seem to have been removed or blocked....
Can anyone post more here?
tribalogical
Are those standard rack towers? If they're 48U racks, then you could fit 24 @ 2U each....
It would still take 45.8 of those racks to assemble 1,100 machines...!
as it is, it takes *122* of those rack units to house the beast @ 9-per rack.... amazing quantities of hardware...
Hey, I'll have one of those, thank you! Let the market wait....
Unfortunately, the pictures over there seem to have been removed or blocked....
Can anyone post more here?
tribalogical
This will be a very interesting figure when they get it optimized. Makes me wonder how many man-hours in took from start to finish, and how many total people have worked on it thus far. Even with a crew of people it still took some serious time to assemble all those racks, modify all those boxes, not to mention the planning phase, etc.......
Wasn't it posted somewhere that they had ordered these before they actually came out so that in fact no one was bumped?
Also, it makes me think that if they ordered these computers the G5 Xserve is not coming out before January. Perhaps the Xserve will wait for the 90nm 970s?
Also, it makes me think that if they ordered these computers the G5 Xserve is not coming out before January. Perhaps the Xserve will wait for the 90nm 970s?
Just got that message. Only got through the G5 Racks and half of the assembly thing...here's another pic-i'm guessing these are the custom built racks for the G5s
eh nevermind my iDisk is going all weird...
90nm 970 not necessary for Xserve
90nm 970s might be necessary for G5 PowerBooks but Xserves have a bit more space to utilise. Apple could be waiting for PowerMac sales to settle down and/or OS X Server 10.3 to become ready. There must also be enough CPUs from IBM for Apple to announce a hot (as in, everyone-wants-one hot) product like this. If this cluster is a success there will be a lot of universities eager to replicate it.
90nm 970s might be necessary for G5 PowerBooks but Xserves have a bit more space to utilise. Apple could be waiting for PowerMac sales to settle down and/or OS X Server 10.3 to become ready. There must also be enough CPUs from IBM for Apple to announce a hot (as in, everyone-wants-one hot) product like this. If this cluster is a success there will be a lot of universities eager to replicate it.
Re: 90nm 970 not necessary for Xserve
The 'slideshow' has some great information on the project. Safari doesn't like it though, looking at it in ie.... That's just wrong.
http://computing.vt.edu/research_computing/terascale/tcfslides_files/frame.htm
The 'slideshow' has some great information on the project. Safari doesn't like it though, looking at it in ie.... That's just wrong.
http://computing.vt.edu/research_computing/terascale/tcfslides_files/frame.htm
Your site is pleasantly speedy, arn, in contrast to VT.
I suspect that the Cluster Photo category pages with the thumbnails were pre-loading the full-size photos, which would explain why the category pages were so slow to load while the full-size photos came up relatively quickly.
I wonder if all those computers have optical drives, or if Apple built them special without them? Seems like an extreme waste if all those computers have drives that will never ever be used - and for that matter, video cards.
...At the very least I hope they are only combo drives and not superdrives! The horror!
...At the very least I hope they are only combo drives and not superdrives! The horror!
A waste? Yes and no.
One of the benefits of a cluster-based supercomputer would be that once it is time to upgrade its components, the old computers that were part of it could be sold. So if in two years the students of this university are offered the G5 PowerMacs from these pictures they would rather have SuperDrives and video cards included.
One of the benefits of a cluster-based supercomputer would be that once it is time to upgrade its components, the old computers that were part of it could be sold. So if in two years the students of this university are offered the G5 PowerMacs from these pictures they would rather have SuperDrives and video cards included.
Re: A waste? Yes and no.
Are they going to have a problem if the next generation Macs come in a different form factor? One of the Xserve benefits, of course, is the standardized size (1U high, width for 19" rack) and V.T. doesn't have that benefit with these Power Macs.