MacRumors.com

In a press release, the University of Maine announced its intentions to build a 256-node cluster of G5 Xserves at the Target Technology Center in Orono. Progress on building the machine can be watched in their online gallery, as well as a webcam mounted on the server room door.

Aided with funding from the US Army, this $680,000 cluster will remain running 24/7 and will be available for use by both UMaine researchers and businesses. Dubbed "Baby MACH 5", this machine is meant to be a running test for the US Army's installation of it's 1566 node cluster dubbed MACH 5.

256 node clusters seem to be a magic number, with the recent release of the UCLA Plasma Physics Xserve cluster also having 256 nodes.