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Linux Chosen for IBM's New Supercomputer

Uhh_Duh writes "news.com is reporting that Linux will be the main OS in the Blue Gene - IBM's $100m supercomputer project. The Blue Gene will contain 65,000 processors and 16 trillion bytes of memory." Wow. That's a lot of nuclear weapons simulations.

31 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. That's a lot of Tuxes... by blindcoder · · Score: 3, Funny

    to be displayed in the Framebuffer at startup...

    --
    See my blog for my free opinions.
    1. Re:That's a lot of Tuxes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      why, does your machine display one for each processor ?

      weird....

    2. Re:That's a lot of Tuxes... by machine+of+god · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's why nothing will get done for the first month. The entire development team will be spending sleepless nights porting quake to work with 65000 processors.

  2. Re:What distribution? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It'll be Redhat, 6 point something. They found a set of the CDs lying around so they decided to use that.

  3. he real question is by JamesCronus · · Score: 2, Funny

    can you play quake on it?

    --
    dybia felly dwi a hampster (i think therefore i am a hampster)
  4. Gzzzzap by Overand · · Score: 4, Funny

    In other news, the oil companies rejoyce as they plan the new power plant that this number of processors will require.

  5. Try to /. this baby! by NutMan · · Score: 2, Funny
    The Blue Gene will contain 65,000 processors and 16 trillion bytes of memory.
    The first server that is immune to slashdotting!
  6. Why Linux? by Kj0n · · Score: 5, Funny

    It seems to be the ideal system to run the next Microsoft operating system.

    To quote someone else: "16 trillion bytes should be enough for everyone."

  7. Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these! by nmg196 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's the official benchmark of this thing, on a well known scale like QFPS (Quake Frames Per Second)...? :)

  8. In other news... by vinlud · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... id Software finally found a proper testing environment for Doom 3!

    --
    Repeat after me: We are all individuals
  9. Deep Thought? by srhuston · · Score: 5, Funny
    I love this line in the story:
    The IBM research team is currently running a large Linux cluster to simulate Blue Gene.

    Building a computer, to tell you how to build another, larger, more complex computer. Hrmmm..
    --
    Three dits, four dits, two dits, dah!
    Radio, radio, rah rah rah!
    1. Re:Deep Thought? by io333 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Building a computer, to tell you how to build another, larger, more complex computer. Hrmmm..

      Uh, that's how it works in general. Or did you think modern CPUs were laid out by hand?

      Naturally I laid out my own CPU by hand. I run Gentoo on it too. We all do. What are you, some kind of Mandrake wussy?

  10. Re:The end of AIX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    It is official - Netcraft has confirmed: AIX is dying

    One more crippling
    bombshell hit the already beleaguered AIX community when IDC confirmed that AIX
    market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of
    all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states
    that AIX has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've
    known all along. AIX is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by
    failing dead last
    in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to
    be a Kreskin to predict AIX's
    future. The hand writing is on the wall: AIX faces a bleak future. In fact there won't
    be any future at all for AIX because AIX is dying. Things are looking very
    bad for AIX. As many of us are already aware, AIX continues to lose market share. Red
    ink flows like a river of blood.

    AIX 5L is the most endangered of them all, having
    lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time
    AIX 5L developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point
    more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: AIX 5L is dying.

    Let's
    keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    AIX Version 4.3.3 leader Theo states that there
    are 7000 users of AIX Version 4.3.3. How many users of AIX Version 4.0 are there? Let's see. The number of
    AIX Version 4.3.3 versus AIX Version 4.0 posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are
    about 7000/5 = 1400 AIX Version 4.0 users. AIX posts on Usenet are about half of the volume
    of AIX Version 4.0 posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of AIX. A recent article put
    AIX Version 4.3.3 at about 80 percent of the AIX market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 =
    36400 AIX Version 4.3.3 users. This is consistent with the number of AIX Version 4.3.3 Usenet posts.


    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, AIX went out
    of business
    and was taken over by IBM who sell another troubled OS. Now IBM is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major
    surveys show that AIX has steadily declined in market share. AIX is very sick and
    its long term survival prospects are very dim. If AIX is to survive at all it will
    be among OS dilettante dabblers. AIX continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle
    could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, AIX is dead.


    Fact: AIX is dying

  11. Sounds impressive by Rubbersoul · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Blue Gene will contain 65,000 processors

    But what they don't tell you it that it is 65,000 old 386DXs ... :)

    --
    man .sig
    No manual entry for .sig.
    1. Re:Sounds impressive by forged · · Score: 3, Funny
      Wise of them to use PPC chips, which run rather cool.

      Picture 65,000 AMD's at 2+ GHz, what a fire hazard that would be :*)

  12. Re:Face it. by Iamthefallen · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean IBM, a large multinational company, isn't just out to do good? They actually use the best tools out there to make a profit without considering their moral obligation to stubbornly pick an OS and stick with it in religious conviction? Oh the horror! Won't someone please think of the children!

    -1, Sarcastic asshole, I know I know...

    --
    Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
  13. second most powerful computer... by magwm · · Score: 2, Funny


    i speak of none but the computer which will become after this one...

  14. 65k? That more linux CPUs than on all desktops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    65k? That more linux CPUs than on all desktops. Now if only the average Joe and Mary could use it.

  15. mice by magwm · · Score: 3, Funny

    wait until the mice (actually hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings) start building earth.. now that will be a computer.. including nuke tests and weather!

  16. Would you like to play a game? by gtooth · · Score: 3, Funny

    Global Thermonuclear XBill

  17. Unreal 2002 by thomas.galvin · · Score: 4, Funny

    And it still won't render more than 100 FPS on Unreal Tournament. Ah well...

  18. Re:Cool by Valpis · · Score: 2, Funny

    you don't need a computer for this, just skip your pickup line "Do you read slashdot?" :)

    --
    who shot the cat in the hat to experiment is insane
  19. Old times... by Julius+X · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Blue Gene will contain 65,000 processors and 16 trillion bytes of memory.

    That's a LOT of processors.

    It's nice to see that some companies have kept the tradition of computers that fill a room or five. Maybe they can throw some vacuum tubes on for old time's sake.

    --

    -Julius X
    remove "-whatkindofspamdoyoutakemefor-" from email to send
  20. Re:Open source IBM by pubjames · · Score: 3, Funny

    They want open-source to get them rich, right? Less initial cost by the company, etc etc. What are the odds they'll profit-share with people they're getting rich off of? (well, ok, attempting)

    Hey, you're giving free content to Slashdot by posting here! OSDN are getting rich off you, and they're not profit-sharing! You'd better stop posting to Slashdot!!

  21. Re:Not nukes by DJPenguin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Last I checked, Nuclear weapons did a pretty good job of folding MY proteins! ouch!

  22. Re:Open source IBM by gosand · · Score: 5, Funny
    They want open-source to get them rich, right? Less initial cost by the company, etc etc. What are the odds they'll profit-share with people they're getting rich off of? (well, ok, attempting)

    Dude, why are you bitching? I am sure they will make the source available so you can install it on your own 65,000 processor machine.

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  23. Re:Not nukes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Maybe because "Mean Green Earth-Annihilation Machine" would be a PR disaster? At least the the consensus about genomics is that it's generally a good thing...

  24. Eliminate war! by paiute · · Score: 2, Funny

    See, we use this not only to simulate the weapons but also to simulate the actual attacks. Then our computer and the enemy computer can link up and calculate the damage. And if you live in a city that was eNuked, you would go to the molecular deconstruction booths. The we wouldn't have a nuclear winter, which would suck. The when Kirk shows up, we grab him and duct tape his freaking mouth shut, and we won't let Spock get behind us to pinch our shoulders. This could work.

    --
    If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
  25. Re:Open source IBM by Neon+Spiral+Injector · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe they are profit sharing.

    Let x = OSDN's profit
    Let y = number of /. readers providing content

    x/y = 0

  26. Re:What distribution? by martinflack · · Score: 3, Funny

    To: Linus Torvalds
    From: bob@ibm.com
    Subject: kernel-smp patch, 65000 cpu's

    Dear Linus,
    Please accept this patch to accommodate thousands of processors in a single machine.
    [attached: patch]

    To: bob@ibm.com
    From: Linus Torvalds
    Subject: Re: kernel-smp patch, 65000 cpu's

    No problem, Bob. Just go ahead and send me one of those machines for "testing" and then I'll merge the patch in...

    Linus

  27. Re:The end of AIX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Overall, the different flavours of Linux are much more compatible than Win9x and WinNT.

    That's rich, and you're screaming "FUD". *cackle*.