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Virginia Tech Supercomputer Ranks #4 [updated to #3]

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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The New York Times provides preliminary numbers for the fully assembled PowerMac G5 Cluster which Virginia Tech assembled this month.

The preliminary numbers rank the G5 Cluster at the 4th in the world in performance with 7.41 trillion operations per second . Official results will not be reported until November, and Tech reports that they are "still finalizing their results and that the final speed number might be significantly higher."

The relative cost of the entire assembly is significantly less then previous solutions.
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2003/10/21/virginia-tech-supercomputer-ranks-4/
michael666

michael666

macrumors member
Jul 9, 2003
64
52
in front of a computer
The following article puts it on second place on the list:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60821,00.html

The brand new "Big Mac" supercomputer at Virginia Tech could be the second most powerful supercomputer on the planet, according to preliminary numbers.

Early benchmarks of Virginia Tech's brand new supercomputer -- which is strung together from 1,100 dual-processor Power Mac G5s -- may vault the machine into second place in the rankings of the worlds' fastest supercomputers, second only to Japan's monstrously big and expensive Earth Simulator.

The Big Mac's final score on the Linpack Benchmark won't be officially revealed until Nov. 17, when the rankings of the Top 500 supercomputer sites are made known at the International Supercomputer Conference.
Click to expand...
 
XnavxeMiyyep

XnavxeMiyyep

macrumors 65816
Mar 27, 2003
1,131
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Washington
I wonder whether this number will become higher in the rankings when Panther comes around. Or is this one of those things purely measured by the processor itself?
 
Oirectine

Oirectine

macrumors regular
Aug 11, 2003
243
88
Maryland
This is great news :)
And it is running OS X. I wonder how many of the top 10 super computers are running Windows...
 
M

MasterMac

macrumors regular
Jun 17, 2003
132
115
This is pretty good nonetheless :)

Hopefully the final numbers will place them a little higher
 
C

chazmox

macrumors regular
Feb 4, 2003
208
0
Isn't number one the Japanese Earth Simulator ( or some close approximation of that name.. )?
 
T

TrenchMouth

macrumors 6502
Nov 21, 2002
282
0
From my knowledge the number one supercomputer is the earth simulator. i read an article about IBM getting the rights to build two new ones this year that will blow the earth simulator out of the water, but those are super huge and super expensive.

i think this is great for Apple. if this thing had placed in the top 100 it would be great. what this means is that the new G5s are great for running things in parallel fashion and that they scale incredibly well. the price performance ratio of this machine is off the charts. Kudos to VT for having the balls to put it together. so this thing has 2200 processors. anyone out there care to go for 4000? how about 6? you know they are thinking about it.
 
MOM

MOM

macrumors member
May 14, 2002
83
1
San Francisco
This is BIG news!! An article in the New York Times stating that one of the world's fastest supercomputers is made from Macs-for cheap, WOW! So many people will read this and think "Macs are cheap and fast." How often has that sentatment come from the mainstream press?
 
B

Blaaze

macrumors regular
Sep 20, 2003
146
0
wow, i had no idea this big mac would be placed so high. It's pretty amazing comparing the costs and time to the big mac's counterparts.

big plus for apple. with newly released iTunes, and the supercomputer, their name is really being thrown around the market place.
 
Powerbook G5

Powerbook G5

macrumors 68040
Jun 23, 2003
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St Augustine, FL
So where can I pick up one of these babies? I wonder if I can get a good Edu discount on it :D

By the way...imagine all the free copies of Panther those guys are getting. Can you say eBay? ;)
 
Sol

Sol

macrumors 68000
Jan 14, 2003
1,564
6
Australia
4th fastest super-computer is a Mac

4th fastest is not bad, especially when you look at the overall cost and the time that it was put together. Just imagine what will be possible in the same space when the G5 XServes become an option.
 
R

ryanw

macrumors 6502
Oct 21, 2003
307
0
Originally posted by Oirectine
This is great news :)
And it is running OS X. I wonder how many of the top 10 super computers are running Windows...
Click to expand...

Uh, if I remember right, it's running Yellowdog Linux so Panther shouldn't help much in this situation ...
 
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