“A startup on Tuesday unveiled plans at the Apple Expo here to build a distributed supercomputer cluster that could use some thousands of Apple Computer Inc.’s Xserve servers,” Mark Hachman reports for eWeek. “The high-performance network will be installed along Europe’s Internet backbone, startup Omneta plc. said. According to Omneta Chief Technical Officer Tony Clark, the startup, Apple and the European network powerhouse Interoute in October will stage a proof-of-concept cluster involving both Xserve servers and Xserve RAID arrays. If successful, the trial will be extended over the coming year to involve servers placed within Interoute’s facilities, possibly involving as many as 150 data centers across 60 EU cities.”
Hachman reports, “Omneta will sell access to the servers and their processors on a monthly or one-time basis, much as European telcos sell mobile phone service, with either a contract or pay-as-you-go basis. Although the build-out plan is subject to approval and customer demand, upon completion the total network could total ‘several thousand’ Xserves and ‘several hundred’ Xserve RAID arrays, Clark said… According to Clark, Apple representatives said the maker could supply ‘up to 500 servers per day.'”
Hachman reports, “When asked why Omneta chose Apple as a hardware provider, Clark referenced a quote from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who claimed that the PowerPC G5 was the most cost-efficient, highest-bandwidth processor in the data center. Apple’s Mac OS X will receive a workout, too. ‘According to Apple, theoretically, the Tiger OS is infinitely scalable,’ Clark said. ”Theoretically,’ in plain English, means that they don’t know.'”
Full article here.
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