“Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University will upgrade its supercomputer that uses Apple Computer Inc.’s PowerMac G5 computers with Apple’s recently introduced Xserve G5 servers that have two chips in each box, the university said on Tuesday,” Reuters reports.
“The new system, which went online toward the end of last year and which Virginia Tech said was the most powerful supercomputer at any university in the world at the time, will be completed by May,” Reuters reports. “By moving to the thinner servers, the supercomputer will consume less power and generate less heat, said Srinidhi Varadarajan, assistant professor of computer science, college of engineering, at Virginia Tech.”
“‘It cuts the system’s size down by a factor of three,’ Varadarajan said. ‘The new system will take much less power and generate less heat and free up space.’ The current supercomputer that uses 1,100 PowerMac G5 desktop computers occupies 3,000 square feet (280 sq metres). After the upgrade to 1,100 Xserve G5s, which Cupertino, California-based Apple announced earlier this month at its Macworld trade show, the system will occupy 1,000 square feet(93 sq metres),” Reuters reports.
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