Ha, and I heard it's been Panther beta from the start...probably Panther GM pretty soon, if not already.
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Virginia Tech Supercomputer Ranks #4 [updated to #3]
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The Earth Simulator in Japan with a cost of USD$350 million compared to just over USD$5 million for the G5 cluster.
Yeah, that's what I don't get. Why not just build a $25 million behemoth full of Dual G5's right now and blow that Earth Similator (its for predicting weather on a large scale, right?) out of the water by next month?
Sure this is great news, but it doesn't prove that $5 million worth of Intel Xeons or Opterons or whatever wouldn't be faster. Does anybody know how fast such an Intel system would be? Anyone want to take a wild stab in the dark?
Sure this is great news, but it doesn't prove that $5 million worth of Intel Xeons or Opterons or whatever wouldn't be faster. Does anybody know how fast such an Intel system would be? Anyone want to take a wild stab in the dark?
If you read the article, and by the looks of some of these posts many people haven't. The #3 computer is just that.
By contrast, the fastest cluster machine, the Lawrence Livermore system consisting of 2304 Intel Xeon processors, is capable of 7.63 trillion operations a second, at a price estimated at $10 million to $15 million.
However, I am not sure when this computer was built and whether the estimated prices are in current USD or when it was purchased.
The price is the big point here. You don't see any plain, off the shelve computers in the top list. What a great thing for Apple. Don't need to be the fastest but being the cheapest while still being competitive on speed should help all those MS trained IT people who want one OS culture realize the benefit of the mac.
I am p*ssed off with the comment like this (and Jack Miller at AtAT) for missing the point that the cost for The Earth Simulator INCLUDES the whole facility that protects the hardwares from earthquakes and lightenings. It is a very elaborate system, and it is not fair to compare this with just the cost of the G5s at VT. Go read about it:
http://www.es.jamstec.go.jp/esc/eng/ES/facilities.html
Plus, The Earth Simulator was a 6-year-old project that finally became operational last year. Its root is ancient compared with the current computers - YET NOBODY HAS BEATEN IT. Go figure
Edited: spellings
#4 fasted in the world, far less expensive than the others in the list, built in a matter of months. This will get the attention fo the whole supercomputer design world.
And it'll put Apple on this page as clearly the least expensive option on there -the intel machine at #3 was build last year for $10 to $15 million.
http://www.top500.org/lists/2003/06/top5.php
It's a top 500 list and on the first try, an Apple system hit the top 5.
Here's a quote from the article "Word of the low-cost supercomputer, put together by faculty, technicians and students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, is shaking up the esoteric world of high performance computing, where the fastest machines have traditionally cost from $100 million to $250 million and taken several years to build"
Steve should have fun with this.
And it'll put Apple on this page as clearly the least expensive option on there -the intel machine at #3 was build last year for $10 to $15 million.
http://www.top500.org/lists/2003/06/top5.php
It's a top 500 list and on the first try, an Apple system hit the top 5.
Here's a quote from the article "Word of the low-cost supercomputer, put together by faculty, technicians and students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, is shaking up the esoteric world of high performance computing, where the fastest machines have traditionally cost from $100 million to $250 million and taken several years to build"
Steve should have fun with this.
The price for the VT system also includes the cost of the cooling systems and such. Not sure what else it includes. It is not just the cost of the G5s.
Originally posted by ACJ
The price comparisons floating around are retarded, literally. In 18 months a computer twice as fast at 90% of the cost can be built.
Certainly faster, maybe not cheaper. I'm hardly an expert, but my impression is that until now most of the fastest systems were highly customized (like the
#1 system) and highly customized means expensive.
I think this is the first system to reach the top ten at such a low cost and so quickly using off-the-shelf computers, not just readily available processors.
If i remember right the wired article published 17 teraflops.
In my opinion the NYTimes is notorious for publishing a new article but taking old data from previously published articles.
That being the case I wonder if when they were digging for there data they forgot it was 17 and not 7 and then did some research and determined that would be number 4.
I guess we'll know for sure in the next few weeks.
Cluster Supercomnputers lose a huge performance boost as you add more nodes.
So, No, making a supercomputer with 2200 G5s would not blow anything out of the water, it would probably score a teraflop or so above the current 1100 node cluster.
Plus, i think avus is absolutely right, the Japanese earth simulator is not comparable, the cost of the surrounding infrastructure which was factored into the price is far in excess of any equivalent in the G5 cluster (such as cooling).
Having said all that, it's still cool, I imagine when the G5 Xserve comes out a lot more Colleges are going to be thinking about this idea.
So, No, making a supercomputer with 2200 G5s would not blow anything out of the water, it would probably score a teraflop or so above the current 1100 node cluster.
Plus, i think avus is absolutely right, the Japanese earth simulator is not comparable, the cost of the surrounding infrastructure which was factored into the price is far in excess of any equivalent in the G5 cluster (such as cooling).
Having said all that, it's still cool, I imagine when the G5 Xserve comes out a lot more Colleges are going to be thinking about this idea.
It's based on reading about something and then 2 weeks later the NYTimes posts an article about the same thing and some of the facts are obviously from the previous article I read. No, the previous articles are not from dailies.
Which articles? About what? Can you site an example? If it's from professional journals it's not unusual for print media to publish later nor for that publicatin to be the source for the news article. Which daily would you recommend for up to the minute reporting and accuracy?
Sorry I don't have specifics. That's why I said it was in my opinion. If I could remember the specifics I would have stated it as fact and posted the instances.
I don't have any specific dailies. One of the main places I get news is right here in the MacRumors forums. There are lots of posts about new science discoveries and technology. It just seems to me that some non-mainstream site will publish a news article (which I read from a link here or at a handful of other sites) and then a few days or a few weeks later the NYTimes publishes the same thing just written differently and often missing facts.