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Virginia Tech Upgrades to 2.3GHz Xserves

This is a good day for Mac supercomputing. Maybe Virginia Tech's cluster will hit 12 teraflops with this upgrade. Over time, I can see this growing to 15, 20, 30, 40 teraflops as Apple releases new XServes. By the time it hits 40 teraflops - bye bye #1 spot for the Earth Simulator!
 
wordmunger said:
According to the Apple Web site, the COLSA cluster can reach 25 teraflops, so Big Mac isn't even the biggest Mac cluster anymore.
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I'm not surprised by this, given that the COLSA cluster has more XServes in it than Big Mac. Just imaging what COLSA will be able to do once it's upgraded to the 2.3 GHz XServes!
 
I want to see official results in the top500 list. Wow, looking back just 2 years ago, apple didn't even make the list, now entering .... it's 2 attempts are making at least the top 3. Amazing. I do want to see the #1 machine on the list a cluster of macs ... drewl.
 
Macmaniac said:
Come on Apple get your freaking act together, release the updated Xserves to the general public!!
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...because they're just tripping over piles of tens of thousands of the 2.3GHz chips, right?
 
According to AppleInsider and a column at USA Today, the System X supercomputer at the Virginia Tech Terascale Computing Facility has been upgraded to Apple Xserve Dual G5s running at 2.3GHz, up from 2.0GHz.

The cluster consists of 1100 Apple Xserve G5s, each with 4 GB RAM, and was previously upgraded in January from Power Mac G5s to Xserves.

Apple still describes the Xserve G5 as running only up to 2.0GHz, although specs in a leaked graphic in January showed 2.3GHz. The 2.3GHz version was reportedly made available exclusively to Virginia Tech.
 
Nice!

Not too shabby, I guess. 2,200 processors running at 2.3GHz.
The Mach5 has 3,132 processors running at 2.0Ghz.

Even better... Mach5 is getting a LOT of attention from the government and NASA.

Glad to see Apple making some good headway in the supercomputing and sciences arena.
 
realityisterror said:
i really hope they are getting new processors and not entirely new machines...
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It takes more than a processor upgrade to turn a PowerMac into an Xserve. I'm pretty sure they got more than new CPU chips :)
realityisterror said:
VT tuition must be going up ;)
(^^it's a joke people...)
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VT sold their G5 PowerMac cluster nodes. They were available through (I think) MacMall for a few months. So they didn't lose their investment. IIRC, they actually sold for close to Apple's original price - people were willing to pay that much because the computers were virtually new and included some certificate of authenticity stating that the computer was a VT cluster node. (Yes, VT didn't get the full purchase price, since the store took a cut, but VT also didn't pay full retail price - they paid Apple's educational institution price.)
 
Makes sense to give them to VT

Cool! (This was reported some time ago, although I don't remember where. Maybe the 2.3 part was just rumor, but it was mentioned--and the Xserve upgrade was done a while ago. Those Xserves have been up and running at VT for some time--pictures an all have been available for several weeks at least.)

And to clarify, this isn't ANOTHER Xserve upgrade. There was no upgrade to Xserves in Jan., just an announcement. This is that announcement now come to pass. That's what I've understood from eveything else I've read--that Big Mac was down for several months waiting, and there was no immediate upgrade with the towers were sold. Anyone know for sure?

Also, if IBM had enough 2.3s to offer on a mass scale, Apple could have done so--and that may happen in future. If not, then at least Apple could offer them to one high-profile Apple customer.
 
I really doupt this. If its true, this is the most ridiculous thing I have seen this week. Just imagine the time wasted to switch the computers for a 15% CPU increase. Very hard to believe. And if true, the guy leading this switch must have an angry bunch of scientist at his back. Dont forget that these clusters arent there for braging rights, they are supposed to do some science stuff...
 
mgescuro said:
Not too shabby, I guess. 2,200 processors running at 2.3GHz.
The Mach5 has 3,132 processors running at 2.0Ghz.

Even better... Mach5 is getting a LOT of attention from the government and NASA.

Glad to see Apple making some good headway in the supercomputing and sciences arena.
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Just imagine how many teraflops Mach5 will be capable of if/when it gets upgraded to faster XServes (not necessarily the 2.3 GHz ones - maybe the Mach5 maintainers will wait for the upgrade after 2.3 GHz to make the jump). We'll soon have our first 30 Teraflop Mac cluster.
 
Mantat said:
I really doupt this. If its true, this is the most ridiculous thing I have seen this week. Just imagine the time wasted to switch the computers for a 15% CPU increase. Very hard to believe. And if true, the guy leading this switch must have an angry bunch of scientist at his back. Dont forget that these clusters arent there for braging rights, they are supposed to do some science stuff...
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Except for that the Xserves take up way less space than the towers, and all in all produce far less heat, which both saves room in the facility, and creates less cost for cooling the whole thing. In addition, having more space makes it easier for them to expand and add more processors if they want to. This is not just speculation, this is the reported reason.
 
Hmm so they have 2.3 Ghz x serves the thing I find odd is that apple canada had them on there site(as an error) when the top pro model was still duel 2.0 Ghz. Just think of the stuff the lucky bastards in apple R@D get to test...
 
Old news. I read an article about the virginia tech cluster which said it now used 2.3ghz XServes about a month ago.
 
AoWolf said:
Hmm so they have 2.3 Ghz x serves the thing I find odd is that apple canada had them on there site(as an error) when the top pro model was still duel 2.0 Ghz. Just think of the stuff the lucky bastards in apple R@D get to test...
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Makes you wonder what computer Steve is using! :p
 
Any posted benchmarks? Or what's the difference in teraflops in towers vs xserves.

I mean have they run xbench on it yet :p
And if they could fit all those g5's in that space, that must mean the g5 PB is just around the corner (sorry couldn't help myself)
 
Mantat said:
I really doupt this. If its true, this is the most ridiculous thing I have seen this week. Just imagine the time wasted to switch the computers for a 15% CPU increase. Very hard to believe. And if true, the guy leading this switch must have an angry bunch of scientist at his back. Dont forget that these clusters arent there for braging rights, they are supposed to do some science stuff...
Click to expand...

Why would they need to bring the whole thing down at once? It seems to me that they would just swap out units down the line.
 
munkle said:
Makes you wonder what computer Steve is using! :p
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quad core 8GHz g6 cube i bet, with four 80" flat panels connected to some mad ati prototype x900 xt platinum ****.
 
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