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Eug · Sep 30, 2003, 05:09 PM

Today is Sept. 30, which means tomorrow is the deadline for submission of their scores. Are they gonna make the deadline?

There isn't much about it on the Virginia Tech Terascale Cluster website. The pictures are back up now though.

Sealobo · Sep 30, 2003, 05:59 PM

What are they trying to do with so many G5's?

Eug · Sep 30, 2003, 06:11 PM

Originally posted by sealobo:
What are they trying to do with so many G5's?

I dunno, build a supercomputer?

iNub · Sep 30, 2003, 06:28 PM

OSX just wasn't Snappy Enough with 1199 G5's.

sideus · Sep 30, 2003, 06:42 PM

Originally posted by sealobo:
What are they trying to do with so many G5's?

Host the trailer for return of the king.

Landos Mustache · Sep 30, 2003, 06:44 PM

Originally posted by Eug:
I dunno, build a supercomputer?

All the G5's cost them 5 Million over the next 5 years. They do 20 Million a year in research.

Eug · Sep 30, 2003, 06:53 PM

Just think Landos, you now have .09% of a supercomputer! Maybe you can get $18000/yr in research grants now...

as2 · Sep 30, 2003, 07:23 PM

I still can't find out what the PCI card they are installing in them all is...

Does anyone know?

Lordx_ · Sep 30, 2003, 08:09 PM

Originally posted by as2:
I still can't find out what the PCI card they are installing in them all is...

Does anyone know?

Fibre channel maybe? Just a guess.

RAzaRazor · 11:45 PM

Originally posted by as2:
I still can't find out what the PCI card they are installing in them all is...

Does anyone know?

They are Mellanox Infiniband communications cards. The cards are 20 gigabit (10 gb x 2 channels) and are the main data path into and out of the individual machines. "Switched Network. Each node connects into the network at 20 Gbps full duplex bandwidth."

The Gigabit Ethernet is being used as a secondary network to send the commands to the machines. "Gigabit Ethernet Fast Ethernet management backplane. Will carry NFS, control, job startup and �typical� IP traffic."

Eug Wanker · Sep 30, 2003, 11:40 PM

More details on the Mellanox Infiniband cards.

I read somewhere that the Mac OS X drivers were just written a few months ago, specifically because of this supercomputer.

RAzaRazor · Sep 30, 2003, 11:41 PM

The cooling for this thing is cool. They are using individual AC units on top of each rack. The units blow the cool air down in a curtain in front of each rack where the individual G5s can suck in the cool air using their normal cooling system.

Oh, it looks like when the whole system of 1100 G5s is running, it will be using 1.5 million watts of power. (That includes the individual AC units on each rack, I think.)

Not bad for $5.4 million total! It's being amortized over 5 years, so they are only essentially only paying $1 million per year.

Any guess on which fabulously rich person might have anonymously donated the money for the system? Could he be a fan of blue jeans and black shirts?

Landos Mustache · Oct 1, 2003, 12:30 AM

Originally posted by Eug:
Just think Landos, you now have .09% of a supercomputer! Maybe you can get $18000/yr in research grants now...

Ha ha, lets hope. The g5 will also save money on heating the house!

kcmac · Oct 1, 2003, 10:43 AM

Today is the day? Anyone know anything? Is it operational?

Powaqqatsi · Oct 1, 2003, 12:22 PM

Originally posted by RAzaRazor:
The cooling for this thing is cool. They are using individual AC units on top of each rack. The units blow the cool air down in a curtain in front of each rack where the individual G5s can suck in the cool air using their normal cooling system.

What about the ones on the bottom of the racks ? Does the cold air reach them (sufficiently) ?