Virginia Tech PowerMac Cluster Ranks 3rd

Data

Virginia Polytechnic cluster
2200 IBM PowerPC 970 in Apple G5 2.0 Ghz processors
10.3 Tflops, 0.00468 Tflop/processor
Apple (Ranked 3 in world)
OSX

National Center for Supercomputing cluster
2500 Intel Xeon 3.06 Ghz processors
9.8 Tflops, 0.00392 Tflop/processor
Dell (Ranked 4 in world)
Red Hat
Dell/Intel 16.2% slower per processorthan Apple/IBM

Pacific Northwest cluster
1936 Intel Itanium 2 1.5 Ghz
8.6 Tflops, 0.00444 Tflop/processor
HP (Ranked 5 in world)
Red Hat
HP/Intel 5.1% slower per processorthan Apple/IBM

Rocketman

Puts UK advertising in context, eh?
"I toldyou so"- Steve Jobs in an insanely great moment.

Wonder how many DP G5's linked together it'd take to make it the #1 Supercomputer?

I soooooo want a Virginia Tech Switcher commercial, even though that campaign is probably over and VT didn't really switch, they just bought a lot of G5s. But how cool would that be?

"We are Virginia Tech, and.....We have the 3rd fatest computer in the world."

And the British wouldn't be able to ban that one, because it wouldbe 100% true. :D

I think it's also significant that there is only one other self made supercomputer in the top 100, at position 67....VT is going to release how it made the thing and everything you need to know to make your own, presumably with all the others you just have to contact the manufacture and accept the price they give you for the whole shebang. Obviously you'd be able to customize the thing to your needs, but not as much as if you were able to build it yourself.

Originally posted by MattG
Wonder how many DP G5's linked together it'd take to make it the #1 Supercomputer?

At least 2560 Dual PMG5s, as that would match the Peak of the Earth Simulator (yes, the G5 matches the Earth Simulator's peak flop rating cpu-for-cpu). Accounting for overhead, probably closer to 3000 machines however.

So which university is going to order 1100 Dual 2.5 GHz G5 PowerMacs when the speed boosts are announced in January @ MWSF? ;)

Its only running at 1.5 ghz and is 5 % slower per cpu while the G5 is running at 2ghz!

Ok, sorry, Im just picturing what some zealot would say if there was a p4 cluster running at 3.2 ghz that was ranked higher.

I would like to see how an opteron rates, we should know soon. Amd sold a 10,368 cpu cluster to Sandia National Labs.

Originally posted by Freg3000
I soooooo want a Virginia Tech Switcher commercial, even though that campaign is probably over and VT didn't really switch, they just bought a lot of G5s. But how cool would that be?

Actually, I can see it now. Walk with me...

Commercial fades in with the title "My First Super Computer". A montage of the VT volunteers putting together the cluster, copious shots of the PowerMac G5 throughout, and real home movie feel. Then towards the end we switch to an awards ceremony taking place, with an announcer reading off the top 5 (incoherent until we reach #3). Then we hear the VT cluster, rank 3 in the world. The Dell cluster, rank 4 in the world, fade out incoherent to the rest of the ranking. Jeff Goldblum comes in and narrates over a spinning G5.

"Why don't you start building your own Super Computer?", fade to Apple Logo, fade out.

Originally posted by ~Shard~
So which university is going to order 1100 Dual 2.5 GHz G5 PowerMacs when the speed boosts are announced in January @ MWSF? ;)

Whoever spends a mere $10m on 2200 of the more likely 2.6Ghz systems with an upgraded FSB speed, will be tickling #1 in the world. With first generation 970-G5's

Computers for the rest of us indeed.

And just in case you are confused, $10m is dirt cheap as compared to the top 5, last ranking. Mellanox deserves supreme kudos as well for Infiniband.

This is all off the shelf stuff guys and anyone can get a few students together with free pizza and cola!

Thank you pizza and cola, the Apple accessory of choice for supercomputer installers!

Question: What if someone just spends a traditional supercomputer budget of $25-40m and see where that leads?

Rocketman

Originally posted by MacRETARD
Its only running at 1.5 ghz and is 5 % slower per cpu while the G5 is running at 2ghz!

Ok, sorry, Im just picturing what some zealot would say if there was a p4 cluster running at 3.2 ghz that was ranked higher.

I would like to see how an opteron rates, we should know soon. Amd sold a 10,368 cpu cluster to Sandia National Labs.

Yea, the Itanium is a floating point monster, same Peak as the 970 in fact. Likely the difference is that they had more time to optimize their cluster vs the VT cluster, as they are at 74% efficiency vs VT at 58%. They'll get another chance to benchmark next year, so who knows what we'll see then . As for the Opteron cluster, I suspect that it has the same peak as the 970, but I don't know how it performs - all the benchmarks I've seen so far have shown Opteron vs 970 to be a wash.