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Va Tech Cluster Info Session - Apple the Cheapest Option

Fri, 09/05/2003 - 12:04 — boredatwork

Taken From Chaosmint.com

"On September 4th, 2003, Virginia Tech held an informational session for their upcoming Supercomputer Cluster. The new Cluster has received a lot of attention as it is expected to be one of the top computer clusters in the world, and is utilizing 1100 of Apple's new Dual 2.0GHz PowerMac G5s.

The informational session provided confirmation of some of the available information as well as some interesting details of the planning stage. As previously reported, the total cost of the Supercomputer Cluster comes to $5.2 million -- which includes systems, memory storage and "communication fabrics".

Even at $5.2 million, the overall cost of the system is said to be "one of the cheapest systems of its kind". In determining which architecture to use, many vendors were considered beyond Apple -- including Dell, Sun, IBM and HP. The final decision, however, was made on a pure Cost vs Performance basis -- with Apple's solution providing the best overall price.

The PowerMac G5 systems will be running Mac OS X, and will also utilize a custom "fault tolerance" software system called Deja Vù. This fault tolerance system will allow the cluster to withstand "just about [any] failure".

The cluster is expected to begin operations on October 1, 2003, with performance tweaking through Mid November. At that time, it will be open for initial applications, with a fully operational cluster expected by January 2004."

Comments

Sat, 09/06/2003 - 13:36 — atrox (not verified)

Re: Va Tech Cluster Info Session - Apple the Cheapest Option

Thats pretty darn cool, but still I dont think I buy that apple wins based on purely cost. A cluster of x86 machines with AMD processors would have surely been cheaper, even if a cluster of IBM, HP or whatever were somehow not.

I know the G5 is cool as hell and all, but cheaper? I aint buyin that one. Just price a single and compare and so on?

Sat, 09/06/2003 - 17:28 — Andy (not verified)

Re: Va Tech Cluster Info Session - Apple the Cheapest Option

Well, I don't think its purely cheapest price, but more a combination of things.

First and foremost, we (I say we, I go to VT for those who don't know) need it done this fall in order to get on the Linpack Top 500 Supercomputer list. Apple pretty much guaranteed fastest delivery time. They essentially put all other orders on hold and filled ours.

Also, the total cost (systems + infiniband interconnects + extra RAM) is only $5M. Now the price of RAM and the infinibad hardware isn't gonna change, and Apple has their dual 2GHz G5's retail priced at $3,000. I'm sure we're not only getting an educational discount, but also a bulk + great-pr-for-apple discount. This probably makes for a per-system price that Dell/HP/whoever wouldn't be able to beat by much. The only way to beat this price would probably be by building the machines ourselves, which we wouldn't want to do since we'd take all the liability for hardware faults.

Finally, since the supercomputer list is all about floating-point performance, I'd consider the G5 just about the best choice given thats the area it seems to excel in. Optimize your code for the altivec FP unit and compile everything with IBM's compiler, and you're gonna have some pretty nice results.

And as my final argument, we just beat JMU 43-0. Hard to argue with that, huh?!

[%sig%]

Sat, 09/06/2003 - 18:07 — Andy (not verified)

Re: Va Tech Cluster Info Session - Apple the Cheapest Option

Chaosmint has some more detailed info here

http://www.chaosmint.com/mac/vt-supercomputer/

Sun, 09/07/2003 - 15:03 — atrox (not verified)

Re: Va Tech Cluster Info Session - Apple the Cheapest Option

yeah thats kinda of what i meant, the apple MAKES SENSE, but it cant be the cheapest as the article stated.

also it is hard to argue with 43-0, agreed.

Mon, 09/08/2003 - 09:44 — Andy (not verified)

Re: Va Tech Cluster Info Session - Apple the Cheapest Option

Hehe, sorry dude...you were saying the same thing I was...guess I should read closer ;)

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