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Can this supercomputer send email?

yah....really FAST

So this should be number 2 then, right?

Is the MACH5 interface command line or GUI (i.e. OS X)?

JadisOne,

It can also send viruses to unsuspecting Wintel users. WHOOSH!

Seriously, what an amazing setup, I'm gonna get one in my attic, just as soon as I've reinforced the floor.

Not only does it do email but you can surf for porn virus free. Or so I hear.

It runs on Mac OS X Server.

The sidebar clearly states the OS as being OS X Server!!

How many other institutions seriously consider XP Server as an operating system when designing a super computer?

“A single person using a hand-held calculator — without pausing to eat or sleep — would need more than two million years to calculate what the Apple supercluster can calculate in a single second.”

Zoom - Zoom - Zoom

a single person using a hand-held knife - without pausing to sleep or eat - would need more than 2 million years to kill the people a Hypersonic Missile can kill in a single second.

Sure, a 1,566 Xserve G5 cluster is fine, *if* you're an artist or designer. For real work, you need a PC.

After looking over the article, a few considerations:

1. FORTRAN? How quaint!
2. IBM's C++ compiler is now available on OS X? Quick! Recompile and rerun all the benchmarks!
3. They use PowerPoint and Keynote for presentations? I'd love to see how that works out (eg, they do the presentations in Keynote and then have downloadable PowerPoint slides?)
4. 110 tons of HVAC?! Your average home air condition is two to five tons. Average computer rooms are 30 tons or so. The scary part? According to the article, the G5 ran the coolest! I'd hate to see what the others required!
5. Unfortunately, they don't name names in the benchmarks. "One cluster alternative..." indeed! C'mon, man! Which one?! We need bashing material! :^)

The second Mac SuperCluster. I wonder how many more to follow?

Who would have figured Apple would be the new dominating force in Super Computers?

LOL GO APPLE!!!

...For "real work" you need a PC...

I couldn't agree more... after all its "real work" to patch these damn things every day, it's "real work" to reboot all the time, it's "real work" to reinstall your OS every week, it's "real work" to put up with the grief of everything not working for no aparent reason...

Yep, for "real work" you do need a PC. You just need a Mac to get stuff done

Bah humbug. I still prefer my overheated, virus prone, power demanding, more expensive, crash plagued Windows Server clusters.

We are still #1!! EAT THAT APPLE!

Sincerely,

IM A. Lemming

"a single person using a hand-held knife - without pausing to sleep or eat - would need more than 2 million years to kill the people a Hypersonic Missile can kill in a single second."

Actually, a hypersonic missile could kill very few people. It's that explosive warhead that kills people.

Still, it made me laugh.

Anybody know how much this thing cost?

It would be cool if the next Mac Cluster beats the NEC Earth Simulator at a fraction of the cost.

Mac Bitch = Slut

"Anybody know how much this thing cost?"

I can't find the reference, but I believe it was somewhere around $5.5 million.

"It would be cool if the next Mac Cluster beats the NEC Earth Simulator at a fraction of the cost."

Oh, you could definitely beat the NEC Earth Simulator at a fraction of the cost. What's a more interesting question, to me, is what kind of system could you get for $350 million--the cost of the NEC Earth Simulator.

Let's see...I could get 70 COLSA clusters for $350 million. Assume 15TFlops per cluster (actual, vs. 25TFlops theoretical). 70 x 15 = 1050...

1.05 Petaflops. Mmm...

Now, I know clusters don't scale linearly, so I doubt a $350 million Mac cluster would break the Petaflop barrier. But it's nice to dream...

Mac Beth for Presdent.

oh yes tim but not for you. only for davido.

NEC's Earth Simulator is safe for a while yet. While clusters of commodity machines are orders of magnitude cheaper to build and maintain, the overhead of the message-passing model (interconnect speed, co-ordination etc) limits their real performance to somewhat less than theoretical peak. Add to that the fact that there are problems for which clusters are uniquely suited; they can't touch traditional brute-force supercomputers in many areas, so they're inefficient for some spheres of research. A jack-of-all-trades cluster could include one or more supercomputers for the heavy lifting, or if you have something like Bill Gates' bank balance, the ideal solution would be to build a cluster of supercomputers.

By the way Tim, that was a totally uncalled for remark, you judgemental dickhead.

Just imagine the FPS in Doom 3!!!

I could use this to build the next game engine, for sure. And I could do it from orbit with Airport Extreme!

Tim, you're an ass.

MacBeth, your comment was perfect.

Maybe someone will use an XServe G5 supercluster for something a little more worthwhile than missle technology-- perhaps for figuring out a way to stabilize a country without bullets and bombs.

I like to think that Apple has and will continue to change the world. Let's hope its genius goes to developing things better than something for military applications.

How uncalled for. Tim's a troll.

I wonder if it will run Photoshop in 16 bit...

props to macbeth...

although to be too socially concious is way out of favour in this day and age.. considering North America is safe because of stuff like this (I'm not sure why.. but this will get political and I want no part of it...)

I scooped MDN !! .... If you look in an earlier thread here,..... (cant remember which, at the moment)
I posted a link to the original story... I was waiting to see how long MDN took to notice it !! LOL...

Btw .... the original story can be found .. Over Here

With Macs ruling the world there will now be smoothly running, well designed armageddon at the hands of the greedy - as opposed to blue-screen-of-death type inefficient armageddon that the other choices may have rendered.

I'd be proud to be vapourised by a missile designed on MacOSX.

Well put, Mac Beth

A Hypersonic Missile System?
Great, now no democracy on Earth will be safe.

I am developing millions of small missiles with my recently acquired supercomputer, the army story is a smoke screen. All iPods have had small transmitters inserted, my buddy Steve Ballmer designed them, they're really cool. Then I just press a button and the missiles will all be released and target everyone who owns an iPod, how dare they steal my profits!!!

I still haven't paid Apple for the 1,566 Xserves, I'm a bit hard up this week.

Also interesting is the timescale. The story says "quote request issued: April 27 2004". Less than six months from a quote request to being operational? How many other supercomputer manufacturers have that sort of delivery capability?

Go Apple! With Virginia Tech, Apple must now have two out of the top three. Come on now, doesn't someone have a spare 10 or 15 million laying around so we could have a go at number 1?

Mac Beth = Whore

"Maybe someone will use an XServe G5 supercluster for something a little more worthwhile than missle technology"

I'm not sure that I agree with your theory that 'missile technology' is somehow less than worthwhile.

From the article, "A typical problem Medeiros and colleagues face involves computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to model flight — for either missile bodies or flow-through scramjet engines."

Designing an appropriately shaped body which can travel at speeds above 5,000 miles per hour is something I consider to be very worthwhile.

Try to avoid falling into the trap of "Military Equals Evil." Consider that the Mercury and Gemini NASA programs used ICBMs (Redstone and Titan) to put men into orbit. I'd imagine this to have a similar purpose--while a hypersonic cruise missile with a nuclear bomb would definitely ruin your day, hypersonic rockets could someday make supplying an orbital space-station much cheaper.

The one surprise I find in this, though, is that the Army is doing this. The Air Force, I could see--it's their job to go fast. But I'm not sure I see what the Army will use this for...

Anyone consider that these hypersonic missiles might be for a missle defense system? So, a single diplomat - without pausing to sleep or eat - would need more than 2 million years to attempt to negotiate peace with an irrational regime to protect the same number of innocent civilians that a Hypersonic Missile can protect in a single second. There is always a different perspective.

Mac Beth = 300 lb fat women

There are obviously non-military applications for hypersonics, it's just sad that we devote so much time, energy, money and resources to such a trival and pointless persuit as weapons development.
Devote these same massive resources and the trillions of dollars spent each year around the world on fixing the planet's problems and we could end almost immediately:
World hunger;
Homelessness;
Poverty;
Environmental degredation;
Deforestation;
Global warming (greenhouse effect/climate change);
Energy crisis;
and Terrorism - as without hungry, homeless, destitute, disenfranchised, marginalised and landless people, terrorists loose their captive and desperate constituents and conscripts. Then it becomes a much simpler matter of rounding up the hold-outs.
Of course the only problem with this is that the West needs to give up its terrorism of the rest of the world first, producing the above-listed issued, which in turn provokes the type of terrorism we're reacting against now.
What goes around, comes around I suppose. Or you could say we reap what we sow.

Peter--

Point taken. However, given it is the Army and not the Air Force, I can't help but sense a sinster motive. Granted, military technology, such as GPS, sometimes filters through to everyday life, and so there is always a postive side. I am not against space research-- I just wish the space research would come before the missle research. Besides, a resusable space shuttle-type vehicle would be much better than a one-time rocket.

I'd never think military = evil.

As for a missle defense system, to be honest, it wouldn't make me feel any safer. Our biggest threats are from suicide bombers or so-called "dirty bombs," not a nuke from some rogue nation.

But I digress, I'd rather chat about Macs.

Thanks for the comment, Peter.

Hypersonic missiles are mostly but not completely defensive.

It used to be very hard to get America into a war. They usually had to be attacked when they weren't looking, sort of sucker punched, before they would join a fight.

Oh yeah, 9/11.

I, for one, have no problem with the USA being the world's cop. Russia wants to kick some terrorist ass too. That makes me a little uneasy.

There are no freedom fighters. If you kill civilians to get attention for a cause you are a terrorist, no mater how noble you think your cause is.

"a single person using a hand-held knife - without pausing to sleep or eat - would need more than 2 million years to kill the people a Hypersonic Missile can kill in a single second."

I Really like his quote! but it made me think...

Hypersonic Missiles don't kill people... People Kill People... They just do it better with hypersonic Nuclear tipped missiles....

Wow. The MACH5 dilivered the goods with its theoretical 25 teraflops per second. I think that every military power will look at this and say "I'll have a bit of that". It is a low-cost solution for cutting edge performance and anyone with tens of millions could afford to purchase one of these.

We will have to see the revised supercomputer list to determine what place this would be in. I am sure that the competition has not been standing still.

"There are no freedom fighters. If you kill civilians to get attention for a cause you are a terrorist, no mater how noble you think your cause is."

I hate to burst your bubble but terrorists are not the only ones killing civilians. In war situations there is always what the spin doctors call 'colateral damage'. I would say that in a moral sense targeting civilians is more evil than killing them by accident but not by that much. Someone must make the choice to attack and live with the consequences.

The best that we can hope for MACH5 is that it will minimise the accidents by improving misile technology.

jay = cory = tim = get a life.

its fine if apple can sell a bunch of xserves. i made a joke thats all. but if people REALLY want to get political, how about some truth?

the us has killed about 12-14 THOUSAND civilians in Iraq to help bush's rich friends get richer (like most bush policies do), without waiting for proof of wmds. at least we can vote bush out and get someone with a real long-term plan instead of a bunch of half-planned viet nams we can't get out of. the terrorists are thanking bush for helping them stir up hate. how many people do you think loved someone in the 14 thousand? how many do u think never would have been a terrorist before, but now they will be? what a smart strategy. make the world hate us, let afganistan go back to the taliban, and not even FIND any wmds in iraq! that leaves enough time for a golf trip, blocking good health care, some tax cuts that only help the wealthy, and some deceptive ads about kerry, because americans want tv ads not real issues.

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

all those deaths are documented. wow. think how sad one civilian dying is. what if it was your mom or your kid? now multiply by thousands and compare what benefits we got from all that killing while ignoring korea's nukes and mass murder in sudan etc.

now think about the american troops bush killed for his oil. they are heroes. i bet they'd rather die for a good cause than a bad one.

yeah i know sometimes you HAVE to attack. but guess what? sometimes you dont. sometimes its all about money and feeding a bunch of bull to americans who think democracy means follow-the-dictator. it doesnt its actually ok to think for yourself!

beth out

MacBeth...

A tip of the old macdood hat to you ! ... I applaud you for your sensitivity, and for the guts it took to expose yourself to the wrath of those right-wingers .. brace yourself !

My only wish is that you were wrong ... but, alas... youre not !! .... I just wish those who are about to attack you for your views ... could see just how right you are !!

you go girl !

Macbeth: ah, but who benefits from a Kerry victory in Iraq?

The French, and the Russians who want the oil contracts that they had in place with Sadaam to come back, and the Germans who built the bunkers and palaces at the expense of the Iraqi people, all while Sadaam was killing a lot more people than we ever would.

There are abuses now, but a lot less than there would have been had the situation continued as it was.

Personally, from the US point of view, I think it was really all about Iran, which was and is the real danger, and so this 1: gets rid of Sadaam and his business buddies, and 2: counters Iranian influence. And now Russia knows they have to help us contain Iran, after what has gone on there recently.

And now the French are being attacked, so maybe (doubtful?) they will come on board like they would have been if they didn't want the oil contracts so badly. The Germans: they will build bunkers for anybody who can pay.

But did it come preinstalled with solitaire?

everybody benefits from a Kerry victory. its too late to make Iraq turn out ok though. the screw up has been made.

getting saddam out is good. worth the price which will be paid in american lives? not THAT good. and getting him out with world support and a REAL plan from the beginning would have been better.

and if you're comparing saddam killing innocent people to us killing innocent people, i don't buy it. maybe saddam would have killed 1000 people a month even with the UN keeping watch. maybe. but that's easier to sleep with than MY country killing them for profit.

Actually its not too late, my nephew is in the military in Iraq, and I know of a half a dozen families who have people there, and they say that things are much better in Iraq everywhere outside of Baghdad, and Faluja, which are the areas being targeted by Iranian supported insurgents. My nephew says that the media has no interest in the rest of the country because what is happening does not match what their preconcieved notions of the story are.

Hard to get much world support when the French, Russians , and Germans were doing business with Sadaam even after the war started , in some cases. Maybe that support was not worth having.

Sadaam killed 100's of thousands of people for his profit. If we kill civilians, it's accidental, and of course it's horrible, but Sadaam did it on purpose.

The UN, they ran away when they got one office bombed. No surprise there.

Im the beginning of the invasion of Iraq... the occupant of the White House wanted to call it .. "Operation Iraqi Liberation" ....

But the changed it to "Operation Iraqi Freedom" ... when someone with half a brain pointed out the acronym of the former ...

This speaks volumes

" This speaks volumes"

It does?

I guess if it speaks to anything, it speaks to the French and Russian oil contracts.

I am just glad we did not agree to let the French and the Russians keep the contracts in payment for their support.

I am also glad that they are coming to their senses after the terrorists decided to show how they really feel about Russia and France.
I assume Germany will be next.

".It does? "

It does... its the real reason we're in Iraq... think about it... Who is getting rich off of the "so-called" .. "Liberation" of Iraq ??

The oil people..... and lets do a little 2+2 here....

The occupant of the most famous address in the US.. got his momey ...( or was born into it) ... by what means ??

Aha !! .....

No matter which "Super Cluster" you use... the answer still comes up 4 !

Forgot to add: I have no inside knowledge, but it is possible that US companies might now get oil contracts.

But if we do, it is much more likely that the Iraqi people will get some benefit, as opposed to the previous "occupant."