“Apple has carved out a niche on the desktop, and has a loyal following in graphics design, video editing, and other similar technical fields. More recently, it has stormed the world with the iPod. But few think of the company as a player in the supercomputing field. Yet that is exactly where its Xserve G5 line of servers is making waves,” Drew Robb writes for ServerWatch.
“Case in point: the Hypersonic Missile Technology (HMT) team at Huntsville, Alabama based COLSA Corp. has adopted a supercomputing platform consisting of 1,566 of the 64-bit, dual-processor Apple Xserve G5 servers for its MACH5 (Multiple Advanced Computers for Hypersonics) cluster. This gives the company 60 times more computational power than its current production machine. Result: It can now do calculations in one day that previously took two months,” Robb writes.
Full article here.
Vrooom!
Pirst Fost?
Didn’t loads of Wintel nerds try to make a supercomputer, only for it to crash??? I remember reading about it around the time Big Mac had just been switched on…
Anyway, who cares – GO APPLE!
Apple now has 2 of the top 10 fastest computers in the world (supercomputers). There are no computers in the fastest top 10 or even the top 20 based upon Microsoft technology.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong?
“…But few think of the company as a player in the supercomputing field. Yet that is exactly where its Xserve G5 line of servers is making waves,” Drew Robb writes for ServerWatch.”
Correction, the line should read: ‘But few think of the company as a player in the supercomputing field *right now*.’
Based on what Apple has done with their consumer, pro, and enterprise lines over the last few years, I would say that in the next few years, Apple will be kicking some serious ass in the ‘supercomputing field’.
After the success of the system at Viginia Tech, Apple got a LOT of phone calls from enterprise (and gov’t) folks who wanted something similar. I think that Apple is poised to significantly increase it’s mindshare and rackspace occupation over the next few years.
And that is Very Good� for all of us.
’nuff said.
I think it was out in California. They did it in a gym. Good luck trying to network that many windozers computers together. With their compatibility issues it can be a challenge to even network two together.
“Apple now has 2 of the top 10 fastest computers in the world (supercomputers).”
TM,
You are exactly right.
“It can now do calculations in one day that previously took two months,” Robb writes.”
That’s pretty impressive.
That Windows “cluster” your thinking of was kind of a “flash mob” super computer, where everyone brought their laptop, but their were too many different Windows versions and varying system setups for it to work.
This can’t be right. Macs are slow and expensive. Everybody knows that. This is all wrong.
I think 4 or 5 out of the top 10 are PPC based systems and 1 Apple before COLSA was on the list, I dont remember any Windows OS sytems
(IMHO) I think the one of the reasons Apple hasnt released a G5 Powerbook is that the demand would be so high, there is no way they could fill the orders, being just now able to get iMacs and Powermac orders filled. Talk about marketshare leap, their laptops are already very popular, there would be a flash mob at every Apple store in the country!
The success of the Xserve is perhaps the most amazing and most promising part of Apple’s revival. Nobody really makes money in the PC arena anymore–but there’s money to be made in the server field. If Apple can really get established in this market (and it’ll probably take years), that will go a long way to ensuring their stability for years to come. I’m still amazed that they’ve been able to have as big a splash as they’ve had so far.
from the article:
“He says the primary issue that led to the Apple acquisition was the need for speed.”
Meanwhile, lots of Wintel users are still quoting clock numbers to me and shrugging off testimonials like the above, “that can’t be true.” Yeah, they must be delusional…
“We will be analyzing the goodness of the fix in the next month,” said DiRienzo.
We knew this guy wasn’t an English major, but COME ON
James, not everybody is a native English speaker. Criticizing people’s grammar makes one appear xenophic and troglodytic.
By the way, I may have just invented that last word. Please don’t report me to the Proper English Police.
Its so great what Apple is turning into. They are attacking Microsoft at its weakest and it is we who will be laughing at all those wintellian apologists. And G5 PBs are delayed because of heat/power issues not because of lack of chips.
Windows is only good for virus writing, stealing mp3 files & surfing porn.
Oh no, I guess troglodytic really is a word. That’s not really relevant to the MACH5, but hey. This is the Internet. It’s not supposed to be relevant; it’s supposed to be a waste of time.
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I have one of the slowest computers in the world…
Makes me laugh thinking of them running the Wintel supercomputer…
“OK guys, we got 50 boxes up and running…oh no, 49, no another blue screen of death.. oh no another one..”
Just watching them running around a room full of computers rebooting like hell… ho ho ho!!
Actually what is REALLY prevent the G5 powerbook is that SJ wants the form factor to stay pretty close to the same, and wont release a laptop that is oversized to be really portable. SJ and JI keep the rest of the industry designers on their toes.
“Windows is only good for virus writing, stealing mp3 files & surfing porn.”
You really know your stuff Big E, Being since most viruses are written on Linux or a flavor of Unix.
They are also great at Spanking Mac Boxes in every test besides Photoshop.
You people who think your G5’s are something special need to open your eyes…Apples Marketing has fooled you so well that you’re like those carrying gateway boxes in the commercials. Cows being led to the overpriced slaughter house.
“OK guys, we got 50 boxes up and running…oh no, 49, no another blue screen of death.. oh no another one..”
Yeah, Right. Like you would know MacaDay
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,112749,pg,8,00.asp
“Even Apple’s 2-GHz dual-CPU G5 unit had a hard time keeping up with a single-chip FX-51 PC in most tests.”
ROTFLMAO…Pathetic
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,112749,pg,7,00.asp
One thing that struck me about the photo was that the Alienware Aurora FX-51 looks huge in comparison to the G5. If you could remove the curved feet and handles from the G5 case then it would look small next to the Aurora. I don’t want to see any more “cons” in computer product evaluations about “large G5 cases.”
“The dual-G5 sparkled in one main area: our Photoshop test, which it completed in 18 seconds, or about 17 percent faster than the Aurora’s 21 seconds. The 1.8-GHz single-chip G5 ($2999) trailed at 27 seconds.”
Looks like the low-end G5/1.8 did pretty well against the Alienware Aurora FX-51 product. It would be great if the PowerMac crushed every other computer in every test. But I would rather have an Apple computer running on MacOS X than a slightly faster Windoze box anyday.
By the way – the worst that they could say was that performance and cost were comparable. Only in the Wintel world (and in politics) can a competitive postion be portrayed as weak.
NoMacForYou
…
ok .. buy the alienware machine … but no OS X for you …