“The Australian Department of Defence will be one of the first users of Apple’s new operating system OS X 10.4, or Tiger, buying an Apple server cluster for use in the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). The contract, signed last month and valued at almost $90,000, specifies the supply of an Apple Xserve cluster node running OS X 10.4, which was officially launched last Friday,” Rob O’Neill reports for The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Dr Michael Webb, head of DSTO’s distributed enterprises group, says the cluster is an upgrade to a system bought 18 months ago for chess simulation, the game of chess being used as a metaphor for war-gaming. Games are played with all kinds of variations included, different strengths, the ability to have an extra move and hidden pieces that opponents can’t see. The players are software agents, not real people,” O’Neill reports. “The aim of the program, Dr Webb says, is to explore the strengths and weaknesses of military command and control. He says the research has proved a lot more fruitful than originally expected. The upgrade doubles the size of the cluster to 64 processors, half with G4 and half G5 processors. The chief benefit is the power of the Apple machines: ‘grunty,’ Dr Webb says.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Australia’s fastest supercomputer to use Apple Xserves, Xgrid and Mac OS X – April 20, 2005
Apple’s Australian Mac sales surge a massive 49.1 per cent, share jumps from 3 to 4.1 per cent – February 21, 2005
Australian gov’t buys Apple Xserve G5 servers, Xserve RAID systems – September 27, 2004
Apple returning to Australian retail chains after long absence; strong Power Mac G5 orders reported – August 11, 2003
MDN magic word “BIG” as in this is a BIG deal…
“grunty” is not the half of it …
I have just installed Tiger, and my PowerMac Dual G4 1.42 is noticeably quicker than Panther … much appreciated Apple!!
Oh …
And Go Aussies!!!
…and in other news, Australia has a Deparment of Defense.
Just kidding…had to do it.
The Aussies will soon be the chess champions of the WORLD! The extreme power of Tiger is shaking the foundations of the chess community.
Today chess, tomorrow backgammon!
I’m really hoping the deal is for $90 million and not $90K as you have it in the article.
The third fastest supercomputing cluster in the world at the time cost around$ 5 million (Virginia Tech System X) – Apple Xserves and Tiger blow the price/performance paradigm away. $90 million worth of Xserves would create the world’s fastest supercomputer. I think that would be overkill for chess war games.
http://www.tcf.vt.edu/systemX.html
According to Enderle, this isn’t possible. Macs don’t scale this large.
He should know, he has a marketing degree…
And who said Macs weren’t good for games
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What on earth does ‘GRUNTY’ mean??
An AUD $90,000 computer purchase is hardly news.
“GRUNTY” means powerful
Oh for Christ’s sake. Now they’re going to beat England at CHESS too!!!!
…and in other news, Australia has a Deparment of Defense.
Just kidding…had to do it.
Yes they do, they are the “A” in ANZACS which was a term coined back in the FIRST World war on the shores of Gallipoli, Turkey in April 1915 when Australian and New Zealand Troops helped England fight the Turks.
Fortunatly though we dont go invading OTHER countries because they supposedly have OUR oil under THEIR sand and try calling it a search for weapons of mass distruction. We leave that up to the USA.
What on earth does ‘GRUNTY’ mean??
I think the US equivalent term would be “like an NFL Linebacker ?”
Oh for Christ’s sake. Now they’re going to beat England at CHESS too!!!!
Like that would be hard?
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…and in other news, Australia has a Deparment of Defense.
Just kidding…had to do it
This posting only confirms your ignorance given our involvement in previous wars alongside both the US and Britain.
Unfortunately this time we followed your president into IRAQ because we have a stupid Prime Minister. Yes, we are in IRAQ too – As in the past, we continue to fight other people’s wars for dubious causes.
P.S. Proof reading your post is a good thing.
Go Aussies!!!!
Next target – Education Department
from Non Aussies