Wouldn't it be fun if they ran SETI or Folding on the cluster to see how many units per hour they could complete? Anyone care to guesstimate?
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Virginia Tech Supercomputer Cluster Photos
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Re: 64-bit nonsense
Perhaps they don't need a 64 bit OS.
Perhaps they need 64 native math, this is most likely for scientific apps. So for 64 bit math, the Itanic and 970 are both good choices.
Or perhaps they are basing of Spec marks.
Perhaps they don't need a 64 bit OS.
Perhaps they need 64 native math, this is most likely for scientific apps. So for 64 bit math, the Itanic and 970 are both good choices.
Or perhaps they are basing of Spec marks.
Re: Re: 64-bit nonsense
Obviously. And to the post about "bit of 64-bit in Panther", if the O/S doesn't let the application use 64-bit virtual memory, "a few bits" don't amount to much. Can you tell me what the "few bits" are?
The G4, Pentium, and even G3 do native 64-bit floating point, which is more important for most science codes. (The "LinpackD" benchmark for the Top500 list is mostly 64-bit float.)
The PPC970 has 64-bit native integers, which might be a help for some codes.
But Apple's SPEC marks are way below the official listings for Pentium/Xeon - and the Itanium absolutely creams the PPC970.
Obviously. And to the post about "bit of 64-bit in Panther", if the O/S doesn't let the application use 64-bit virtual memory, "a few bits" don't amount to much. Can you tell me what the "few bits" are?
The G4, Pentium, and even G3 do native 64-bit floating point, which is more important for most science codes. (The "LinpackD" benchmark for the Top500 list is mostly 64-bit float.)
The PPC970 has 64-bit native integers, which might be a help for some codes.
But Apple's SPEC marks are way below the official listings for Pentium/Xeon - and the Itanium absolutely creams the PPC970.
G5 dual 2GHz x 1,100 SuperComputer NODE
Each rack holds 3 G5s abreast, 4 high = 12 (with cooler fans above)
That's 92 racks for just the G5s, more to hold RAIDs and Backups, etc.
Each rack holds 3 G5s abreast, 4 high = 12 (with cooler fans above)
That's 92 racks for just the G5s, more to hold RAIDs and Backups, etc.
Originally posted by backdraft
I'm surprised Apple doesn't sell Apple shirts, hat's, coffee mugs, keychains, etc... in the Apple Store. It would be another source of revenue and free advertising for Apple.
backdraft
P.S. Petition anyone?
They do sell them in a Apple store. The company store in Cupertino. I go there every year and pick up a few trinkets and clothes.
Cluster T-Shirt Design Contest
Hey guys, design your own and print it on a T-Shirt transfer printed on any Ink Jet. It works great. Copy what you see and like, then add color and personalize it. Forget Cupertino, why do you think you own a Mac? Photoshop, Illustrator, MS WORD, whatever. Go wild. Let's see who can design the coolest T-shirt, print it off, then IRON ON a shirt. No guts, no glory. I've done it and it's fun. So, just do it.
My Other Mac is a Supercomputer
or
Cluster Geek
Supercomputer Freak
Mac G5 is not Meek
Come on, I'm not creative, just lame.
Hey guys, design your own and print it on a T-Shirt transfer printed on any Ink Jet. It works great. Copy what you see and like, then add color and personalize it. Forget Cupertino, why do you think you own a Mac? Photoshop, Illustrator, MS WORD, whatever. Go wild. Let's see who can design the coolest T-shirt, print it off, then IRON ON a shirt. No guts, no glory. I've done it and it's fun. So, just do it.
My Other Mac is a Supercomputer
or
Cluster Geek
Supercomputer Freak
Mac G5 is not Meek
Come on, I'm not creative, just lame.
Waiting for G5 Xserves
Yes, waiting for G5 Xserve with dual 2.0 chips would be more practical and would take up significantly less space, but Virginia Tech could NOT WAIT to build their Cluster because they had to have it completed, and up and running by an October 1, 2003 deadline to be listed in the annual edition of a SuperComputer List of the top 500. Over $5-million dollars is at stake, and their venture seeks government and commercial grants in the $10s of millions of dollars as a critically important source of income for their academic program. They charge high dollar to do research projects, which pays for their program and then some.
Fiber Optic connectivity of G5 chips is the main component, so I think a "server farm" or G5 cluster would essentially be the same depending upon the software used and the hardware configuration.
Apple still has to design a COOL Xserve box to handle the heat like the current G5 boxes. There is no published time line for that to happen with the Xserve yet. The G5 is an IBM server chip and I don't think anyone disagrees that it is destined for the Mac server program. Plus, Virginai Tech is NOT using OS X software, but is developing their own UNIX based application.
When the 1,100 unit cluster was first announced, I asked around if they should wait for an Xserve model, or maybe phase in faster and faster chips, and the answer was NO. They need them all the same and they needed them NOW. And, that's why so many people who had put an early order in on the dual are still waiting, Virginia got the first 1,100 and other students thereafter.
Yes, waiting for G5 Xserve with dual 2.0 chips would be more practical and would take up significantly less space, but Virginia Tech could NOT WAIT to build their Cluster because they had to have it completed, and up and running by an October 1, 2003 deadline to be listed in the annual edition of a SuperComputer List of the top 500. Over $5-million dollars is at stake, and their venture seeks government and commercial grants in the $10s of millions of dollars as a critically important source of income for their academic program. They charge high dollar to do research projects, which pays for their program and then some.
Fiber Optic connectivity of G5 chips is the main component, so I think a "server farm" or G5 cluster would essentially be the same depending upon the software used and the hardware configuration.
Apple still has to design a COOL Xserve box to handle the heat like the current G5 boxes. There is no published time line for that to happen with the Xserve yet. The G5 is an IBM server chip and I don't think anyone disagrees that it is destined for the Mac server program. Plus, Virginai Tech is NOT using OS X software, but is developing their own UNIX based application.
When the 1,100 unit cluster was first announced, I asked around if they should wait for an Xserve model, or maybe phase in faster and faster chips, and the answer was NO. They need them all the same and they needed them NOW. And, that's why so many people who had put an early order in on the dual are still waiting, Virginia got the first 1,100 and other students thereafter.
G5s in XServes I hope so...
I work for a reseller (dual platform one) I have a customer that needs a few rack mount servers... (like 30 odd) I want macs but they need to be 64-bit... and AMD have the only decent one out there... BRING ON THE XSERVE
I work for a reseller (dual platform one) I have a customer that needs a few rack mount servers... (like 30 odd) I want macs but they need to be 64-bit... and AMD have the only decent one out there... BRING ON THE XSERVE
It brings new meaning to the term:
"Nice rack..."
(Oops - somebody already beat me to that comment!)
Still - at least you won't get slapped for saying it...
Dude - you've really got to get out more!!!!
"Nice rack..."
(Oops - somebody already beat me to that comment!)
Still - at least you won't get slapped for saying it...
Dude - you've really got to get out more!!!!
Thats enough info for me. Hope you go with macs. There is always the added bonus when buying desktops for this sort of project, you can sell them off easier when you need to upgrade. I think it would be easier to sell 30 G5 desktops than 30 Xserves.
Last Day?
Since they have to have the machine benchmarked by today, I am amazed there is so little news about it. Does anybody have any info on how it is going? At least their web site with the images works again.
http://computing.vt.edu/research_computing/terascale/
Since they have to have the machine benchmarked by today, I am amazed there is so little news about it. Does anybody have any info on how it is going? At least their web site with the images works again.
http://computing.vt.edu/research_computing/terascale/
Big Mac Supercomputer data & T-Shirts available
In terms of the number of processors, Big Mac's closest analog is a cluster of 2,300 2.4 GHz Xeon processors at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Clocked at 7.6 teraflops, the cluster is currently ranked third. "It will be interesting to see where the G5 comes in comparison to this machine," he said. So far, Big Mac appears to be 2nd behind a $350-million Japanese supercomputer.
Today, Joyce Randall at Virginia Tech responded to my request for performance data on their "Big Mac" Supercomputer, and about the T-Shirt "My other Mac is..."
Good morning Rand,
Thank you for your interest in and support of the Terascale Supercomputer Cluster.
We have received a number of inquiries regarding the Cluster (quite a few for the T-shirts specifically) and right now we are working on a website where all questions can be submitted, answered and then posted for everyone interested to query. Our main focus right now is to get everything up and running and as you can imagine that has been and continues to be a major effort. Things are looking great!
I am working with the University on the possibility of making the T-shirts available for purchase. As soon as that is accomplished, we will post the information to our current website:
http://computing.vt.edu/research_computing/terascale/
In the meanwhile, here are a couple other websites I think you might find interesting:
<http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_clickonline.asp?pageid=666&co_pageid=3>
<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60821,00.html>
Please feel free to send questions and/or comments to my attention and I will certainly do my best to get them answered.
Sincerely,
Joyce Randall
Assistant to the Associate Vice President
High Performance Computing
1700 Pratt Drive, Suite 209-C
Virginia Tech
In terms of the number of processors, Big Mac's closest analog is a cluster of 2,300 2.4 GHz Xeon processors at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Clocked at 7.6 teraflops, the cluster is currently ranked third. "It will be interesting to see where the G5 comes in comparison to this machine," he said. So far, Big Mac appears to be 2nd behind a $350-million Japanese supercomputer.
Today, Joyce Randall at Virginia Tech responded to my request for performance data on their "Big Mac" Supercomputer, and about the T-Shirt "My other Mac is..."
Good morning Rand,
Thank you for your interest in and support of the Terascale Supercomputer Cluster.
We have received a number of inquiries regarding the Cluster (quite a few for the T-shirts specifically) and right now we are working on a website where all questions can be submitted, answered and then posted for everyone interested to query. Our main focus right now is to get everything up and running and as you can imagine that has been and continues to be a major effort. Things are looking great!
I am working with the University on the possibility of making the T-shirts available for purchase. As soon as that is accomplished, we will post the information to our current website:
http://computing.vt.edu/research_computing/terascale/
In the meanwhile, here are a couple other websites I think you might find interesting:
<http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_clickonline.asp?pageid=666&co_pageid=3>
<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60821,00.html>
Please feel free to send questions and/or comments to my attention and I will certainly do my best to get them answered.
Sincerely,
Joyce Randall
Assistant to the Associate Vice President
High Performance Computing
1700 Pratt Drive, Suite 209-C
Virginia Tech
Big Mac at Virginia Tech #1 in USA
2nd most powerful computer on Earth is a Mac
The G5 cluster of the University of Virginia, in the USA, is up and running, under Mac OS X, a version of Panther. Its performances were measured for the first time under the Linpack Benchmark, and scored an amazing 17.6 TFlops !
This result makes this supercomputer the second most powerful one, behind the famed Japanese Earth Simulator, and it is the most powerful of all in the United States. Not bad, when you know it cost a mere 5.2 million dollars, half the estimated price from the competitors during the bid, and most of all, far less than the $100 million that the other current supercomputers did cost.
"Big Mac" (as nicknamed by Terascale staff) will officially join the Top5 Supercomputers during the SC2003 conference in Phoenix, AZ, USA, from the 15th till the 21st November.
P.S. : To help the comparison,
Earth Simulator cost $350 million,
Virginia Tech Mac Cluster Supercomputer $ 5.2 million (1,100 G5 dual 2GHz cluster)
ASCI Q, the (2nd best ...until now), cost $200 million, and
ASCI White (4th position) "only" $100 million.
So, pray tell, are Macs still that expensive?
Mac Supercomputer costs $5.2 million
October 9th 2003
Supercomputers - everyone would love one but with a price tag of around $100 million each they're not easy to come by. But in the United States staff and students at Virginia Tech have built one of the world's most powerful Supercomputers for a cool 5 million dollars. It's all to do with plugging together smaller Mac G5 machines.
Ian Hardy went to Virginia to see the supermachine for himself.
This is the project that has caused heads to turn in the world of Supercomputing. It is, in fact, 1,100 brand new Apple G5 towers placed side by side making it the world's most powerful homebuilt system, capable of 17.6 trillion floating point operations per second, with a combined storage capacity of 176 terabytes.
Pat Arvin, Project Coordinator, Virginia Tech: "Each individual G5 is a dual processor, 2GHZ machine with 4GB of memory. So it's extremely fast." This network is linked using 2900 cables and runs at about 100 times faster than an average corporate network that uses today's top of the line Ethernet connections. But the hard part of making a Supercomputer is stability.
The project's chief architect, Srinidhi Varadarajan, had to write a special program called Déjà Vu to ensure that if any individual computer crashes in the middle of a calculation lasting weeks, if not months, another computer will take over seamlessly. Varadarajan not only helped build the supercomputer, he developed the software package employed in the cluster, Déjà vu, helping bring stability to the computers. Varadarajan said most quality computers fail about once per year and clustering 1100 computers together creates a multiplied failure rate that would be unacceptable. The software transparently transfers a failed application to a new place without the knowledge of the computer, preventing the application from being altered in any way.
With the addition of the supercomputer, the Tech community is open to receiving funds from a proposed National Science Foundation program called The Cyberinfrastructure Funds. The program is scheduled to have a $1 billion annual budget and will offer $100 million to centers like Tech, which house large supercomputer centers supported by the National Science Foundation.
Srinidhi Varadarajan: "This is pretty much like open heart surgery because you're working on a computer and moving an application while it still continues to run. You cannot stop the program, actually, and that's the speciality of this system."
The Supercomputer, unofficially nicknamed Big Mac, was built in just three months. Right from the start there were major hurdles that could only be overcome with significant construction in and around the building. Running 1100 computers in a 3000 square foot area sends the air temperature well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact the heat is so intense that ordinary air conditioning units would have resulted in 60 mph winds. So specialized heat exchange cooling units were built that pipe chilled water into the facility.
Kevin Shinpaugh, Director of Research/Cluster Computing: "There are two chillers for this project. They're rated 125 tonnes each in cooling capacity, and they pump 750 gallons per minute each. The water is at about 45 degrees Fahrenheit."
The power supply was another huge challenge. The Supercomputer uses the same amount of electricity as 3000 average sized homes. Meanwhile, in early September, the G5s started arriving by the lorry load.
Jason Lockhart, Director of High Performance computing: "The machines were taken off the trucks on their pallets. The pallets were broken down and we processed machines. We did 238 machines in little under two hours, so we were humming along as an assembly line."
A speedy installation was essential because Virginia Tech had to comply with an October deadline set by the National Science Foundation. Missing that deadline would have meant automatic disqualification from the NSF's global Supercomputer rankings, thereby denying the college any chance of competing for top scientific research projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
Srinidhi Varadaraja: "A system of this size generally sees its most application in what is known as big science research; massive simulations, models, computational engineering systems. Examples of these include things like nanoscale electronics, if you're trying to invent computer chips 30 years from now you're looking at atomic levels with a single atom acting as a switch."
Arguably Virginia Tech has revolutionized the world of Supercomputing with a simplistic setup that can be duplicated around the globe by other institutions.
Hassan Aref, Dean of Engineering: "We're going to document how we did this from start to finish and if you want to build one we'll send them a kit and tell them how to do it."
Supercomputers, like PCs, become old in technology terms within about 3 to 5 years. But whereas you or I would go to a shop and buy one, Virginia tech has to start again from scratch. That's why they are building a new multi million dollar facility opening in 2006 for the next generation of Supercomputer.
1st most powerful computer on Earth
Costs $350-million, achieves 40 Tflops
Distributed Memory Parallel Computing System which 640 processor nodes
interconnected by Single-Stage Crossbar Network
Processor Node: 8 vector processors with shared memory
Peak Performance: 40 Tflops
Total Main Memory: 10 TB
Inter-node data transfer rate: 12.3GB/s x2
Target for Sustained Performance: 5 Tflops using AGCM.
*The goal above was its thousand times' performance of the AGCM in those times (1997).
2nd most powerful computer on Earth is a Mac
The G5 cluster of the University of Virginia, in the USA, is up and running, under Mac OS X, a version of Panther. Its performances were measured for the first time under the Linpack Benchmark, and scored an amazing 17.6 TFlops !
This result makes this supercomputer the second most powerful one, behind the famed Japanese Earth Simulator, and it is the most powerful of all in the United States. Not bad, when you know it cost a mere 5.2 million dollars, half the estimated price from the competitors during the bid, and most of all, far less than the $100 million that the other current supercomputers did cost.
"Big Mac" (as nicknamed by Terascale staff) will officially join the Top5 Supercomputers during the SC2003 conference in Phoenix, AZ, USA, from the 15th till the 21st November.
P.S. : To help the comparison,
Earth Simulator cost $350 million,
Virginia Tech Mac Cluster Supercomputer $ 5.2 million (1,100 G5 dual 2GHz cluster)
ASCI Q, the (2nd best ...until now), cost $200 million, and
ASCI White (4th position) "only" $100 million.
So, pray tell, are Macs still that expensive?
Mac Supercomputer costs $5.2 million
October 9th 2003
Supercomputers - everyone would love one but with a price tag of around $100 million each they're not easy to come by. But in the United States staff and students at Virginia Tech have built one of the world's most powerful Supercomputers for a cool 5 million dollars. It's all to do with plugging together smaller Mac G5 machines.
Ian Hardy went to Virginia to see the supermachine for himself.
This is the project that has caused heads to turn in the world of Supercomputing. It is, in fact, 1,100 brand new Apple G5 towers placed side by side making it the world's most powerful homebuilt system, capable of 17.6 trillion floating point operations per second, with a combined storage capacity of 176 terabytes.
Pat Arvin, Project Coordinator, Virginia Tech: "Each individual G5 is a dual processor, 2GHZ machine with 4GB of memory. So it's extremely fast." This network is linked using 2900 cables and runs at about 100 times faster than an average corporate network that uses today's top of the line Ethernet connections. But the hard part of making a Supercomputer is stability.
The project's chief architect, Srinidhi Varadarajan, had to write a special program called Déjà Vu to ensure that if any individual computer crashes in the middle of a calculation lasting weeks, if not months, another computer will take over seamlessly. Varadarajan not only helped build the supercomputer, he developed the software package employed in the cluster, Déjà vu, helping bring stability to the computers. Varadarajan said most quality computers fail about once per year and clustering 1100 computers together creates a multiplied failure rate that would be unacceptable. The software transparently transfers a failed application to a new place without the knowledge of the computer, preventing the application from being altered in any way.
With the addition of the supercomputer, the Tech community is open to receiving funds from a proposed National Science Foundation program called The Cyberinfrastructure Funds. The program is scheduled to have a $1 billion annual budget and will offer $100 million to centers like Tech, which house large supercomputer centers supported by the National Science Foundation.
Srinidhi Varadarajan: "This is pretty much like open heart surgery because you're working on a computer and moving an application while it still continues to run. You cannot stop the program, actually, and that's the speciality of this system."
The Supercomputer, unofficially nicknamed Big Mac, was built in just three months. Right from the start there were major hurdles that could only be overcome with significant construction in and around the building. Running 1100 computers in a 3000 square foot area sends the air temperature well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact the heat is so intense that ordinary air conditioning units would have resulted in 60 mph winds. So specialized heat exchange cooling units were built that pipe chilled water into the facility.
Kevin Shinpaugh, Director of Research/Cluster Computing: "There are two chillers for this project. They're rated 125 tonnes each in cooling capacity, and they pump 750 gallons per minute each. The water is at about 45 degrees Fahrenheit."
The power supply was another huge challenge. The Supercomputer uses the same amount of electricity as 3000 average sized homes. Meanwhile, in early September, the G5s started arriving by the lorry load.
Jason Lockhart, Director of High Performance computing: "The machines were taken off the trucks on their pallets. The pallets were broken down and we processed machines. We did 238 machines in little under two hours, so we were humming along as an assembly line."
A speedy installation was essential because Virginia Tech had to comply with an October deadline set by the National Science Foundation. Missing that deadline would have meant automatic disqualification from the NSF's global Supercomputer rankings, thereby denying the college any chance of competing for top scientific research projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
Srinidhi Varadaraja: "A system of this size generally sees its most application in what is known as big science research; massive simulations, models, computational engineering systems. Examples of these include things like nanoscale electronics, if you're trying to invent computer chips 30 years from now you're looking at atomic levels with a single atom acting as a switch."
Arguably Virginia Tech has revolutionized the world of Supercomputing with a simplistic setup that can be duplicated around the globe by other institutions.
Hassan Aref, Dean of Engineering: "We're going to document how we did this from start to finish and if you want to build one we'll send them a kit and tell them how to do it."
Supercomputers, like PCs, become old in technology terms within about 3 to 5 years. But whereas you or I would go to a shop and buy one, Virginia tech has to start again from scratch. That's why they are building a new multi million dollar facility opening in 2006 for the next generation of Supercomputer.
1st most powerful computer on Earth
Costs $350-million, achieves 40 Tflops
Distributed Memory Parallel Computing System which 640 processor nodes
interconnected by Single-Stage Crossbar Network
Processor Node: 8 vector processors with shared memory
Peak Performance: 40 Tflops
Total Main Memory: 10 TB
Inter-node data transfer rate: 12.3GB/s x2
Target for Sustained Performance: 5 Tflops using AGCM.
*The goal above was its thousand times' performance of the AGCM in those times (1997).