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SAPAC Unveils New Australian Supercomputer

Sean Burford writes "The South Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (SAPAC) has unveiled its new AU$1.7 Million supercomputer named Hydra. It is an IBM 1350 Linux cluster with 126 compute nodes (xSeries 335), 1 head node (xSeries 335), 1 storage node (xSeries 345) and 1 managment node (xSeries 345). Hydra has a peak theoretical performance of 1.2 Teraflops, and has currently benchmarked at 682 Gigaflops. The current benchmark places it in the fastest three supercomputers in Australia and equivalent to the current number 80 in the world. The cluster has a total of 258 2.4Ghz Intel Xeon processors and 258GB of RAM. SAPAC expects to achieve a benchmark closer to 700 Gigaflops with further tuning. Hydra is hosted at The University Of Adelaide, who already host a 40 node cluster of Sun e420 machines."

227 comments

  1. if I didn't, someone else would have.... by sweeney37 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nahhh, that's not a computer. Now this, this is a computer.

    Mike

    1. Re:if I didn't, someone else would have.... by Jason1729 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's 3 stories tall over an area the size of 4 tennis courts. When you fit that much computing power into a notebook, let me know.

      Jason
      ProfQuotes

    2. Re:if I didn't, someone else would have.... by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 4, Funny

      ooooh, and it even comes in designer colors. Sexy

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
    3. Re:if I didn't, someone else would have.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      oh man, i was hoping you posted a picture of a spoon.

      THAT'S NOT A COMPUTER, THAT'S A SPOON

      Ay, I see you've played computer-spooney before!

    4. Re:if I didn't, someone else would have.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, but what I want to know is why they can't stick to the standards and use Quake3 fps for benchmarking? It works for everyone else.

    5. Re:if I didn't, someone else would have.... by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm suprised someone hasn't put type-R decals on it by now, just to squeeze out that extra 2% of performance.

      --

      In Soviet America the banks rob you!
    6. Re:if I didn't, someone else would have.... by Negatyfus · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those! OMG LOLOLOL!!!!11!11

    7. Re:if I didn't, someone else would have.... by sukottoX · · Score: 1

      in a related note, this article, the US Weather service is begining to use a computer that is potentially faster than any other computer... up to 100 trillion calculations per second.

    8. Re:if I didn't, someone else would have.... by Lord_Slepnir · · Score: 1

      Wow. I didn't even know that Apple made mainframes.

    9. Re:if I didn't, someone else would have.... by AdmTaco · · Score: 1

      Cool.... so can I run SETI on it?

  2. but is it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    as powerful as "the Gibson"?

    1. Re:but is it... by Stonent1 · · Score: 1

      Earth Simulator... Hmmm. Reminds me of the Matrix. But I can do one better. I don't simulate earth, I live it!

    2. Re:but is it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't simulate the Earth, I stimulate it, oooh yeah.

    3. Re:but is it... by Stonent1 · · Score: 1

      I don't simulate the Earth, I stimulate it, oooh yeah.

      Not bad for an AC! :)

    4. Re:but is it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's spelled Isaac.

  3. Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by zptdooda · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "The cluster has a total of 258 2.4Ghz Intel Xeon processors and 258GB of RAM."
    258, hm? Izzat metric or sump'n? Maybe it's like that feet/metres thing with that Mars probe. Or is it like how AMD numbers their chip speeds? Is it a Southern hemisphere localised effect perhaps?

    When someone explains this to me I'm going to feel mighty small. Possibly 1/258 of my current stature.

    --
    Esteem isn't a zero sum game
    1. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by cybermace5 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      How to Speak Australian:

      In Australia, even 2^8 is bigger.

      --
      ...
    2. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      129 nodes * 2 CPUs = 258 cpus
      129 nodes * 2GB = 258GB (actually 129 * 2048MB)

    3. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by xphread · · Score: 0
      Hydra is an IBM cluster with 129 nodes, each of which contains two 2.4 gigahertz Intel Xeon processors and two gigabytes of RAM.

      A network connects 128 of the supercomputer's nodes to provide high speed communications for parallel processing...

      just incase you were too lazy to RTFA!

      But I suppose it's hard surviving with only 1/258 of any interest in doing anything except skimming /. summaries, and providing uninformed comments.

    4. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      R
      T
      F
      A

      Is it really that much to ask?

    5. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by sould · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Dunno about the processors - I dont see any reason why you'd need a power of two for them. Perhaps we've got two arrays of 2^7 processors with a controller processor each (=128+1 *2 = 258)

      But I suspect as far as the ram goes that the 258 gigs is 256 - but counting 1k as 1000 instead of 1024. (or possibly 1M as 10^6 instead of 1048576)

      Haven't you noticed the difference between what a vendor says is the size of a HDD compared to how many gigs you actually get when you put it in your PC?

    6. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by zptdooda · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As a matter of fact sir I did:
      - read through the whole linked article
      - opened a spreadsheet and tried to figure it out a couple of ways (failed miserably - it's been a long day)
      - searched for more information but mostly just found photographs and old presentations

      258=129*2 . Ah, yes I see now.

      Thanks for pointing out one of my character flaws though. Not laziness, but can't put 129 and 2 together.

      --
      Esteem isn't a zero sum game
    7. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by vandan · · Score: 1

      I'm surprised the Americans even realise Australia exists, let alone have preconceived notions about their supposed inferior exposure to large numerals.
      Getting smarter, are we?

    8. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by zptdooda · · Score: 1

      Thanks, I can picture that now. I was trying to picture the configuration but couldn't.

      I think I'll stick to posting during the daytime from now on. A number of other people responding right now might need some sleep as much as I do - people sure get cranky in these wee hours!

      Yeah I'm aware of the 10^3 versus 2^10 difference. My 80Gb drive fromatted to 76Gb or so.

      Anyway, thanks for the explanation.

      --
      Esteem isn't a zero sum game
    9. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by OneArmedMan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      *It is an IBM 1350 Linux cluster with 126 compute nodes (xSeries 335), 1 head node (xSeries 335), 1 storage node (xSeries 345) and 1 managment node (xSeries 345).*

      126 Nodes + 1 Head Node + 1 Storage Node + 1 Management Node = 129 Nodes total

      129 Nodes total * 2Gb ram per node = 258Gb ram for the cluster

    10. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by ScottDB · · Score: 0

      It's very simple -- there is a total of 129 nodes in the system. Each of them has 2 Xeon processors and 2GB of RAM. (mmm... let's see.... 2*129=258, at least it was when I went to school over 25 yrs. ago.) sheesh! These kids nowadays don't know how to multiply any more...

    11. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by lewp · · Score: 1

      Wow, you guys get indoor plumbing and electricity for a couple years and all of a sudden you think you can run with the big dogs.

      Easy there, tiger.

      --
      Game... blouses.
    12. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by tartanblue · · Score: 1

      The processors are in powers of two because the IBM xSeries 335 and 345 machines are dual processor machines.

      --
      TartanBlue
    13. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by vsack · · Score: 1

      128 nodes in the compute partition, plus an additional node (they don't say, but I would assume it's the front-end node - you would want your storage and management node on the high-speed interconnect, most likely).

      So you have 128*2=256 procs connected on the high-speed interconnect, plus 1*2=2 procs for the other node. 256+2 = 258 procs. 1GB RAM/proc = 258GB for the entire system. Has nothing to do with 1000 versus 1024.

    14. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by cybermace5 · · Score: 0, Troll

      I was merely making a joke, meant nothing by it. But now I believe all Australians are touchy, arrogant, xenophobic, and humorless.

      --
      ...
    15. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by vandan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Touchy?
      Arrogant?
      I think you're forgetting who got all upset about a few building falling over and then got retribution by forging evidence of 'Wigwams of Masturbation' and blackmailing the rest of the world into supporting an illegal invasion of a defenseless country. All for your stupid American pride.
      So who is touchy?
      And arrogant?

    16. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by cybermace5 · · Score: 0, Troll

      I would like to add "clueless" and "gullible" to my list above.

      Though I have spoken to quite a few Australians recently, and for the most part they seem to think Americans are OK. So maybe my list applies to "people who are intellectually handicapped and believe whatever mainstream tripe is thrown at them under the guise of being jaded and exposing the mainstream tripe."

      --
      ...
    17. Re:Australian rules powers of 2^38B or what? by cybermace5 · · Score: 1

      Hey hey, look who got mod points! I guess actually defending your point wasn't going well for you!

      --
      ...
  4. Re:imagine by sweeney37 · · Score: 1

    more appropriately:

    Crikey, mate! Imagine a beowolf cluster of these doolallies!

    Mike

  5. Is this news? by KFury · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not to flame or troll, but considering that over 90% of the top 80 came out in the last 30 months, how big a deal is this? Third fastest computer in Australia? Sheesh.

    A computer faster than this is born every two weeks.

    1. Re:Is this news? by Victa · · Score: 1

      Hey, if you compare this to the state of our television talent (ie. Steve Irwin...bleh) then this is world class stuff...

    2. Re:Is this news? by PerryMason · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Its really nothing huge, but you also need to consider the cost involved. AU$1.7 million is about US$1.1 million. So for about a million US$1 you could get in the top 100 supercomputers in the world.

      Looking at the latest top 500 list this would put it as the third most powerful 'self-made' system in the world. For that reason I think it deserves at least a mention and add the relatively low cost and you've got a /. story.

      --
      "I'm tired of all this 'Aren't humanity great' bullshit. We're a virus with shoes" - Bill Hicks
    3. Re:Is this news? by KFury · · Score: 3, Informative

      Looking at the latest top 500 list this would put it as the third most powerful 'self-made' system in the world.

      I disagree. Hydra would qualify as "IBM made" as it uses a standard network of standard IBM machines. For comparison, the top 'self-made' computer, Sandia's Cplant Cluster, was built by the lab from off the shelf components, wired together by custom drivers written by the engineers at Sandia.

      If the thrust of this story was an amazing $AU/tflop ratio, it didn't come across at all in the summary.

    4. Re:Is this news? by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Or your Hollywood talent, Paul Hogan. May he rest in peace.

      --

      In Soviet America the banks rob you!
    5. Re:Is this news? by sql*kitten · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So for about a million US$1 you could get in the top 100 supercomputers in the world.

      For $1M you could buy a load of computers, sure. But what is the cost of a building to put them in? A while ago I did some consulting for a major telco/colo provider. Their single biggest expense was electricity to run their air conditioning and dehumidifiers. It cost more than renting the building. They were seriously considering buying a utility company to get a better rate on electricity. Also on the cards was a relocation to Alaska, but the technology just isn't there yet to run truly "lights out" so they would have adopted an oil rig model - flying sysadmins out for 4 weeks on 2 weeks off, like oil companies do for rig workers. (The story ends before they could actually do any of this when the dotcom bubble burst and all their customers stopped paying their bills).

      The building, the environmental controls, staff to run the system, staff to run the building (security, janitors, canteen staff and so on) - it all adds up. You would need to spend a lot more than $1M to get into the top 100.

    6. Re:Is this news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm... Ferrari or supercomputer...

      Wish I had those kind of decision problems.

    7. Re:Is this news? by vsack · · Score: 1

      Not to mention that most machines on the November 2002 list would have faster numbers now, if they re-ran with the Goto BLAS that came out after list enetries were due. Top 80 in the world is probably overstating things a bit.

      Goto site is here

      Article about the effects is here

  6. But... it's South Australia by Chmarr · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    This is nice, but it's in Adelaide, South Australia. The same state that was first to decide that uploading adult content to the Internet, by FILM STANDARDS, is a jailable offense. Ie, upload a Mills and Boon-style book, go to jail.

    1. Re:But... it's South Australia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is nice, but it's in Adelaide, South Australia. The same state that was first to decide that uploading adult content to the Internet, by FILM STANDARDS, is a jailable offense. Ie, upload a Mills and Boon-style book, go to jail.

      If this comment had been about a state in the U.S., you'd be at +5 by now instead of off-topic.

    2. Re:But... it's South Australia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Would you care to explain your user name? Is it really what I think it is, south-east european root?

    3. Re:But... it's South Australia by evil_roy · · Score: 1

      I agree. This is a big deal. If you upload that crap you should be penalised.

      Well done.

    4. Re:But... it's South Australia by Chmarr · · Score: 1

      It's a made-up name :) Do a google search, like everyone else :)

    5. Re:But... it's South Australia by mholt108 · · Score: 1

      South Australia is a farily weird place. Lots of churches (and I mean lots of them) and really weird stuff happens there. But it also produces some of the most brilliant liberal thinkers in the country.

      Salman Rushdy was there when he was in exile and he described it as the sort of place that Stephen King would set a novel. Really strange vibe, lotsa churches. THe sort of place where bad thing Happen.

  7. Press Interview.... by ewhenn · · Score: 2, Funny

    A spokesperson for SAPAC in a recent press interview has stated that the intent is to create the largest SIMS server on the internet.

  8. Obligatory Australian joke thread by yppiz · · Score: 2, Funny
    So this is what the Simpsons meant by Australia's giant boot.

    --Pat

  9. By crikey mate this specimen is enormous... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    be very, very careful around this one mate.
    It is very, very dangerous.

    Look at the size of the heatsink on that one!

    And this buggers attck fast. And I mean real fast.

    Crikey!

    1. Re:By crikey mate this specimen is enormous... by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 0, Troll

      Watch as I shove my finger, right up his arse. Woo ! Hey ! Oh, he didn't like that one, no sir-ee.

      --

      In Soviet America the banks rob you!
  10. GB vs. MB by lingqi · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...and 258GB of RAM...

    Is it me or anyone else misread it as "256MB"?

    Actually, misreading it lead me to think about a mainframe at my college, which was an SGI with 12 processors and 512MB of memory.

    The thing is, though - when I first went in the college, we were all like "WOW that's a lot of system resources." When I got out four years later I was carrying that much memory on my laptop...

    breakneck speeds, man.

    However, regardless - (with all due respect) why is this such a big deal that australia limped to #80 on the fastest computer list? didn't other linux clusters break teraflops quite a long time ago? EarthSim was neat because it put THAT much more distance between another country and the US (and nearly nobody saw it coming) - but this seems to me hardly news, besides the possible "one of the fastest computer in australia runs linux," or something...

    --

    My life in the land of the rising sun.

    1. Re:GB vs. MB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, misreading it lead me to think about a mainframe at my college, which was an SGI with 12 processors and 512MB of memory.

      You're kidding, right? Dude, that doesn't remotely qualify as a mainframe. Hell, that's itty bitty by SGI standards. Last place I worked, each developer got his own personal 16-processor machine with 8 GB of RAM for application testing. These weren't servers. They were workstations, individual workstations for individual developers to use.

      Pff.

    2. Re:GB vs. MB by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 1

      i don't know man, 12 procs still sounds like a lot of resources to me :p

      and if you think about it, most "normal" people (and i use the term loosely) only carry about 256MB or that there RAM.

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
  11. How long... by Esion+Modnar · · Score: 4, Funny
    ...til somebody asks it, and it replies:

    42.

    --

    They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
    1. Re:How long... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I would think the Earth Simulator would be the better one to ask ;)

    2. Re:How long... by Ty · · Score: 1

      Could someone please point out the reference of this (42) to me? Sorry, I did spend several minutes on google and came up dry..

    3. Re:How long... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahaha. Best joke evar!

    4. Re:How long... by Cyberop5 · · Score: 1

      Ask it what, again?

      --
      Urgo: "I want to live. I want to experience the universe and I want to eat pie!"
      Jack: "Who doesn't??"
    5. Re:How long... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The Answer to the Great Question..."
      "Yes...!"
      "Of Life, the Universe, and Everything..." said Deep Thought.
      "Yes...!"
      "Is..." said Deep Thought, and paused.
      "Yes...!"
      "Is..."
      "Yes...!!!...?"
      "For ty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.

      -The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

      Unfortunately, we are never told what the Great Question is.

    6. Re:How long... by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 1

      Well just wait. I hear the next one is an Earth Simulator Simulator.

      --

      In Soviet America the banks rob you!
    7. Re:How long... by jerde · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm sorry. This just canNOT go unanswered. Nay, we must resort to blatant copyright violations to cure this NOW. The quote is from the late Douglass Adams's book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Geeks around the world resonate with Adams's humor, such that a good number of /. references are to his work.

      So go read the book! Now! Meanwhile, to whet your whistle, and explain the 42 reference, here are the pertinant excerpts from Hitchhiker's guide:

      Chapter 25: There are of course many problems connected with life, of which some of the most popular are Why are people born? Why do they die? Why do they want to spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches?

      Many many millions of years ago a race of hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings (whose physical manifestation in their own pan-dimensional universe is not dissimilar to our own) got so fed up with the constant bickering about the meaning of life which used to interrupt their favourite pastime of Brockian Ultra Cricket (a curious game which involved suddenly hitting people for no readily apparent reason and then running away) that they decided to sit down and solve their problems once and for all.

      And to this end they built themselves a stupendous super computer which was so amazingly intelligent that even before the data banks had been connected up it had started from I think therefore I am and got as far as the existence of rice pudding and income tax before anyone managed to turn it off.

      It was the size of a small city.

      Its main console was installed in a specially designed executive office, mounted on an enormous executive desk of finest ultramahagony topped with rich ultrared leather. The dark carpeting was discreetly sumptuous, exotic pot plants and tastefully engraved prints of the principal computer programmers and their families were deployed liberally about the room, and stately windows looked out upon a tree-lined public square.

      On the day of the Great On-Turning two soberly dressed programmers with brief cases arrived and were shown discreetly into the office. They were aware that this day they would represent their entire race in its greatest moment, but they conducted themselves calmly and quietly as they seated themselves deferentially before the desk, opened their brief cases and took out their leather-bound notebooks.

      Their names were Lunkwill and Fook.

      For a few moments they sat in respectful silence, then, after exchanging a quiet glance with Fook, Lunkwill leaned forward and touched a small black panel.

      The subtlest of hums indicated that the massive computer was now in total active mode. After a pause it spoke to them in a voice rich resonant and deep.

      It said: "What is this great task for which I, Deep Thought, the second greatest computer in the Universe of Time and Space have been called into existence?"

      [...]

      "O Deep Thought Computer," he said, "the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell us ..." he paused, "... the Answer!"

      "The answer?" said Deep Thought. "The answer to what?"

      "Life!" urged Fook.

      "The Universe!" said Lunkwill.

      "Everything!" they said in chorus.

      Deep Thought paused for a moment's reflection.

      "Tricky," he said finally.

      "But can you do it?"

      Again, a significant pause.

      "Yes," said Deep Thought, "I can do it."

      "There is an answer?" said Fook with breathless excitement."

      "A simple answer?" added Lunkwill.

      "Yes," said Deep Thought. "Life, the Universe, and Everything. There is an answer. But," he added, "I'll have to think about it."

      [...]

      Fook glanced impatiently at his watch.

      "How long?" he said.

      "Seven and a half million years," said Deep Thought.

      [... skip ahead to chapter 27, seven a

      --
      INsigNIFICANT
    8. Re:How long... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As much as your legislators and corporations would actually like you to believe that you are engaging in Copyright Violation, your use of sections of the work are clearly Fair Use and therefore not copyright infringment.

    9. Re:How long... by Daath · · Score: 1

      That happened long ago, actually, you're currently living on the supercomputer (earth) that is computing the actual question ;)

      --
      Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
    10. Re:How long... by Chuu · · Score: 1

      Also, for those of you who do not know, 42 is the number of rules in cricket. If you read the hitchhiker's guide -- you'd get the reference.

  12. What? No T-Mobile Sidekick cluster yet? by Dolemite_the_Wiz · · Score: 1

    I would have thought there had been a T-Mobile Sidekick cluster running Linux by now? ::sigh::

    Dolemite
    ____________________

    --
    Save the World! Use a Quote!
  13. yeah but by toddhunter · · Score: 5, Funny

    They are still going to have to upgrade when Doom 3 comes out

  14. Re:imagine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I in a way he has a point. Think what we could do if we joined all of the top 500 supercomputers and connected them together.

  15. Sun.... by methangel · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    E420?

    What is everyone smoking? Oh! Ok!

  16. Life in the fast lane.... by MrCreosote · · Score: 4, Funny

    At least now there is one thing that goes fast in Adelaide.

    --
    MrCreosote Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"
  17. Its time... by thogard · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here's the museum peice its going to replace.

  18. Why aren't they using Athlons? by leereyno · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It really is too bad they can't use Athlons.

    The per-clock performance on an Athlon is much better than what you'll get from a P4 based Xeon, and that is just on integer. When it comes to floating-point performance a lower clocked Athlon will meet or beat the performance of a higher-clocked P4.

    Right now the only SMP chipset for the Athlons is the 761, which is several years old and lacks dual-channel capability. It also requires the use of registered ECC memory. If the Athlon's had an SMP chipset comparable to the NForce2 or Intel's 775 then it would be a very different story.

    Right now the going rate on pricewatch for an Athlon 3000 is only $10 more than a 2.4 Ghz Xeon, and it would spank that Xeon on floating point which is exactly what is important for a supercomputer.

    I hope that the clustering technology they're using makes good use of SMP systems because if it doesn't then they may very well have misspent their money.

    Lee

    --
    Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
    1. Re:Why aren't they using Athlons? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      They must be worried about Global Warming.

    2. Re:Why aren't they using Athlons? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe you are mis-informed... AFAIK, none of AMD's cpus' floating point performace comes even close to Intel's Xeons.. and since this is for "scientific" purposes, I'd assume floating point performance is what they want.

      And secondly, if they are running a cluster, the software is already optimized for parallel processing, and therefore probably well suited to SMP systems...

      now that I think of it, you sound uninformed enough to be a troll.. oh well, already typed it..

    3. Re:Why aren't they using Athlons? by sjames · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, Athlon is not faster than the P4 Xeons at double precision floating point. Double precision is frequently required for scientific computing and is used in the Linpack benchmark for the top500.

      The current dual Athlon chipset is the 760MPX. The Intel i7501 is the preferred chipset for dual P4. It supports dual channel ECC DDR ram and the 533MHz FSB. These days, nobody wants non-ECC ram for a top 500 cluster. It's not that much more expensive these days compared to decently rated non-ECC ram.

      Then there's the cost of air conditioning 258 Athlons...

      I'd say they made the right decision.

    4. Re:Why aren't they using Athlons? by MetricT · · Score: 5, Interesting

      We're just a few days from bringing up a 300 processor cluster of the exact same type of computers they are using, so maybe I can shed some light. There are several reasons for picking Xeons over Athlons at the moment.

      1. If your app uses double precision floating point, and you can recompile your app using SSE2, an Intel will easily beat the AMD. AMD does scalar floating point operations faster per clock. Intel does vector flops faster. Most interesting real-world problems use vector flops.

      2. Memory bandwidth. Most chipsets can only deliver a fraction of their theoretical bandwidth. I've seen speed differences of 25% running code on identically configured machines, one having Intel E7500 and the other with a ServerWorks GC-LE (the ServerWorks smokes...) And those are *good* chipsets. I have yet to see an Athlon chipset that wasn't crap.

      3. Managability. The x335's are pretty damned slick. I *love* the built-in KVM switch and remote diagnostics. You can daisy chain north of 21 nodes together (I think 35!) and you just have one cable coming off of them.

      4. Total cost of ownership. Our previous p3 cluster was assembled (before I arrived) from Pricewatch parts. We initially experienced a 25% failure rate on memory, and spend an inordinate amount of time fixing random problems. 40 of the p3 nodes takes more than three times as much administrator time as 160 IBM x335's. Spending an extra $50,000 on good, quality parts is cheaper than hiring a competent sysadmin. Don't "efficient" yourself to death.

      Having said all that, I'm *really* looking forward to Opteron. We're getting some in a week or so. 64 bit + SSE2 support is going hard to beat.

    5. Re:Why aren't they using Athlons? by scotartt · · Score: 1

      Is that the bit where you use your Athlon-based supercomputer to calculate the effects of global warming but you have to include the effects of running your simulation? So can we simulate the climate effects of our own climate simulation? Does this needs to go into recursion? Can the simulation simulate itself? And will this question be answered in the Matrix Revolutions?

      --
      -A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed-
    6. Re:Why aren't they using Athlons? by mc6809e · · Score: 3, Informative

      It really is too bad they can't use Athlons.

      The per-clock performance on an Athlon is much better than what you'll get from a P4 based Xeon, and that is just on integer. When it comes to floating-point performance a lower clocked Athlon will meet or beat the performance of a higher-clocked P4.


      What you see as an advantage for the Athlon is actually a disadvantage.

      The Athlon is trying to do too much per clock and this limits its maximum clock rate. What matters is realized performance. Right now, less work at a higher clock seems to be pulling ahead.

      It really comes down to how large you can make the product (work x clock rate). Less per clock isn't bad if it means you can greatly increase clock rate.

    7. Re:Why aren't they using Athlons? by (H)elix1 · · Score: 1

      It really is too bad they can't use Athlons.

      They were IBM xSeries boxes - they don't (that I'm aware of) offer a x86 version with AMD. Had this been sponsered by someone who did do AMD servers, you would have seen Athlons in there. This was an IBM gig - and they had xeon's in inventory. Not a bad bit of kit, btw...

      You are correct about the floating point, however. For chipsets, look for the AMD-8131 in boards like this. Most of the new workstation class boards from AMD will be based on the Opteron...

    8. Re:Why aren't they using Athlons? by paitre · · Score: 1

      Having said all that, I'm *really* looking forward to Opteron. We're getting some in a week or so. 64 bit + SSE2 support is going hard to beat.
      This is -specifically- why I'm waiting until the next Opteron stepping before specing out our next cluster.
      The current rig is P4 Xeons (1.8GHz), and is "ok" performance wise, but that's ok, since it was more a "proof of concept" type of thing than a real install *heh*

  19. The thing is... by teamhasnoi · · Score: 3, Funny

    they *still* can't get sound to work, and their window manager crashes every time they play TuxRacer.

  20. Difference? by mr100percent · · Score: 1

    So what's the difference between the Head Node and the Management node?

    1. Re:Difference? by aaaurgh · · Score: 3, Funny

      Management never uses its Head. ;-)

      --

      Go permanent? In your dreams and my worst nightmares.
    2. Re:Difference? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Head node sits on its ass and occasionally rides the back of the Management Node to be more efficient. The Management node then proceeds to be an asshole to the other nodes trying to get them to work harder.

    3. Re:Difference? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just a guess but I suspect the management node is purley for management tasks. The head node performs some management tasks but also acts as a compute node.

    4. Re:Difference? by paitre · · Score: 1

      Head Node:
      Cluster users connect to this node to kick off their jobs onto the rest of the cluster. Basically, it's the enduser accessible machine.

      Management node: cluster monitoring tools, image server, etc.

      On a -small- cluster (16 or 32 nodes, although 32 is pushing it, IMHO), the head and management nodes are typically the same machine. There really isn't a need for there to be more than that, as it's fairly quick and easy to monitor all of 32 machines. On larger clusters (64/128/etc), it starts becoming almost -imperative- to seperate purposes, as you don't want management tasks to eat into the bandwidth available for computation. It's also why the management node(s) is(are) occasionally on it's seperated network (100bT is fine for it, BTW) subsystems.

      *shrugs*

  21. Press Release by femto · · Score: 1, Funny
    For Immediate Release:

    IBM reports that the Univeristy of Adelaide has returned its recently purchased IBM 1350 Linux cluster.

    According to Mr. Ian B. Myers, an IBM technician, the cluster landed on the doorstep at White Plains, NY with a note attached reading "This bloody thing doesn't work". On testing, it was discovered that every node had been named bruce...

    1. Re:Press Release by eggsome · · Score: 1

      And now for something completely different...

      --
      If they made a movie of your life, would anybody buy a ticket?
    2. Re:Press Release by scotartt · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Second Bruce: G'day, Bruce!
      First Bruce: Oh, Hello Bruce!
      Third Bruce: How are you Bruce?
      First Bruce: A bit crook, Bruce.
      Second Bruce: Where's Bruce?
      First Bruce: He's not 'ere, Bruce.
      Third Bruce: Blimey, it's hot in here, Bruce.
      First Bruce: Hot enough to boil a monkey's bum!
      Second Bruce: That's a strange expression, Bruce.
      First Bruce: Well Bruce, I heard the Prime Minister use it. "It's hot enough to boil a monkey's bum in here, your Majesty," he said and she smiled quietly to herself.
      Third Bruce: She's a good Sheila Bruce, and not at all stuck up.
      Second Bruce: Here! Here's the boss-fellow now! - how are you bruce? (Enter fourth Bruce with English person, Michael)
      Fourth Bruce: 'Ow are you, Bruce?
      First Bruce: G'day Bruce!
      Fourth Bruce: Bruce.
      Second Bruce: Hello Bruce.
      Fourth Bruce: Bruce.
      Third Bruce: How are you, Bruce?
      Fourth Bruce: G'day Bruce.

      Fourth Bruce: Gentleman, I'd like to introduce man from Pommeyland who is joinin' us this year in the philosophy department at the University of Woolloomooloo.
      Everybruce: G'day!
      Michael: Hello.
      Fourth Bruce: Michael Baldwin, Bruce. Michael Baldwin, Bruce. Michael Baldwin, Bruce.
      First Bruce: Is your name not Bruce?
      Michael: No, it's Michael.
      Second Bruce: That's going to cause a little confusion.
      Third Bruce: Mind if we call you "Bruce" to keep it clear?
      Fourth Bruce: Gentlemen, I think we better start the faculty meeting. Before we start, though, I'd like to ask the padre for a prayer.
      First Bruce: Oh Lord, we beseech Thee, Amen!!
      Everybruce: Amen!
      Fourth Bruce: Crack tubes! (Sound of cans opening) Now I call upon Bruce to officially welcome Mr. Baldwin to the philosophy faculty.
      Second Bruce: I'd like to welcome the pommy bastard to God's own Earth, and remind him that we don't like stuck-up sticky-beaks here.
      Everybruce: Hear, hear! Well spoken, Bruce!
      Fourth Bruce: Bruce here teaches classical philosophy, Bruce there teaches Haegelian philosophy, and Bruce here teaches logical positivism. And is also in charge of the sheep dip.
      Third Bruce: What's New-Bruce going to teach?
      Fourth Bruce: New-Bruce will be teaching political science, Machiavelli, Bentham, Locke, Hobbes, Sutcliffe, Bradman, Lindwall, Miller, Hassett, and Benaud.
      Second Bruce: Those are all cricketers!
      Fourth Bruce: Aww, spit!
      Third Bruce: Hails of derisive laughter, Bruce!
      Everybruce: Australia, Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you amen!
      Fourth Bruce:Bruce: Crack tube! (Sound of cans opening) Any questions?
      Second Bruce: New-Bruce, are you a Poofter?
      Fourth Bruce: Are you a Poofter?
      Michael: No!
      Fourth Bruce: No. Right, I just want to remind you of the faculty rules: Rule One!
      Everybruce: No Poofters!
      Fourth Bruce: Rule Two, no member of the faculty is to maltreat the Abbos in any way at all -- if there's anybody watching. Rule Three?
      Everybruce: No Poofters!!
      Fourth Bruce: Rule Four, now this term, I don't want to catch anybody not drinking. Rule Five,
      Everybruce: No Poofters!
      Fourth Bruce: Rule Six, there is NO ... Rule Six. Rule Seven,
      Everybruce: No Poofters!!
      Fourth Bruce: Right, that concludes the readin' of the rules, Bruce.
      First Bruce: This here's the wattle, the emblem of our land. You can stick it in a bottle, you can hold it in your hand.
      Everybruce: Amen!

      (NB: The Album versions continue with the Philosopher's song The TV version continues below....)

      First Bruce: Right, let's get some Sheilas.
      (An Aborigine bunts in with an enormous tray full of enormous steaks.)
      Fourth Bruce: OK.
      Second Bruce: Ah, elevenses.
      Third Bruce: This should tide us over 'til lunchtime.
      Second Bruce: Reckon so, Bruce.
      First Bruce: Sydney Nolan! What's that! (points)
      (Cut to dramatic close-up of Fourth Bruce's ear. Hold close-up. The superimposed arrow pointing t

      --
      -A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed-
  22. Couple of other details not in the article by lachlancs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The cluster is running IBM Cluster Systems Management, not Beowulf, and is using Myrinet Networking.

    1. Re:Couple of other details not in the article by cyril3 · · Score: 0
      Thats a pity. "Just imagine a IBM Cluster System Management Cluster using Myrinet Networking of those fuckers" lacks the certain something.

      But it does sound more like Adelaide

    2. Re:Couple of other details not in the article by jonbelson · · Score: 1

      You don't 'run' beowulf, it's just a generic term for a cluster of commodity hardware connected via its own private network (see the beowulf faq for more details).

      --Jon

  23. mmmmmmm...... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    teraflops

  24. This kind of articles just makes me think by chord.wav · · Score: 1

    How far third-world countries like Argentina are from the real world. Or what I want it to be the real world. Chord.wav, the sound of innevitability.

  25. Re:imagine by cyril3 · · Score: 4, Funny

    nobody says doolally anymore mate. It's all so bloody American nowadays. The word is fuckers.

  26. Sad thing is... by Crasoum · · Score: 0, Troll

    So few understand the humor in this.

    1. Re:Sad thing is... by sig+cop · · Score: 0

      Oh we all understand it - a sad attempt at an "insiders" joke. Douglas Adams references just aren't that fucking funny. They usually fall in the "obvious" category. Get over yourself.

  27. however, by rock_climbing_guy · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    No doubt, the pr0n pedelers in Australia will be able to outsmart any censoring technique that this machine comes up with.

    It still can't pass the turing test.

    --
    Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
  28. Explanation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    For those outsode Australia:

    The state government where this is housed has decided that anyone doing over 3km/hour over the posted speed limit, is fair game for speed cameras and fines.

    1. Re:Explanation by MrCreosote · · Score: 1

      Actually, I was more referring to the fact that it is more like a big country town than a city. I mean, it must be the last place in the industrialised world to not have the shops open on sunday.

      --
      MrCreosote Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"
    2. Re:Explanation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh, say hello to Holland...

    3. Re:Explanation by jonwil · · Score: 1

      Well here in perth they dont have sunday trading either.

      Thank god the government here sees some sense and is looking at changing that.

    4. Re:Explanation by mallie_mcg · · Score: 1

      You lose!

      Some toss post tried to introduce that but it did not get through. The correct answer was What the fuck is wrong with Victoria. (hrrrm, perhaps that is too broad). Where is the shittiest place in Australia. - Bugger people might get it confused with Tasmania.

      SA still has 5 or 10%. Besides, if you get off your arse and speak to a camera operator sometime, they will happily tell you that they set the things for 10km/s above the posted speed limit. Which makes it "safe" to travel at up to 69km/h (well unless you get done by a laser cop or car follows you).

      If you want to speed @ night, invest in some "Centenary of Federation -- Vouge Series" a fetching set of plates that have saved me personaly 2400AUD!

      --


      Do the following really mean anything? SCSA MCP CCSA CCNA
      --I'm not actually after an answer!
  29. Re:How to get laid on the first date (808 State) by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    the inherint flaw is that you are assuming a slashdotter can get a date. Further more, you assume that what dates they can get are desirable for sexual relations... ewwwwww

    --
    YOU SUCK BALLS!
  30. Dawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    now i guess the Australians finally have enough processing power to run Nvidia's Dawn demo

  31. Benchmark and interconnects? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They didn't mention which ISL interconnect they were using for the (presumably) Linpack benchmark number of 682 Gigaflops, but it would be interesting to see a full description of their equipment. I run an identical 1350 system, 126 x335's with 2 x345's for management, with a Myrinet (http://www.myri.com) switch and I've been averaging in the low 600's. And IBM signed off on that as being the "practical" maximum for the cluster. Hmm. (Reaching for the phone...)

  32. Hmmmm by DarkHelmet · · Score: 1
    Looks like the Aussies were looking for a way to try out the slashdot effect on slashdot.

    Either that or they're loaning it to New Zealand to study and see if banning intercourse with sheep increases their country's population.

    I somehow suspect the latter.

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
  33. Frame Rate by DarwinDan · · Score: 1

    I wonder what kind of frame rate they are getting for Unreal Tournament...

    --
    $DEITY bless $NATION
    1. Re:Frame Rate by ptr2void · · Score: 1

      That post had to be expected.

    2. Re:Frame Rate by TLouden · · Score: 1

      Unreal?! With that power why not bring brute force back in. All they need is a killer internet connection and a few disturbed computer geeks

      --
      -Tim Louden
  34. use it for SETI! by netnerd.caffinated · · Score: 1

    can you image how many data units this thing could process a day?!! Would get Australia right up there in the country rankings

    --


    You tried your best, & you failed miserably,
    The lesson is:
    Never Try
  35. even more! by golgotha007 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    an even more interesting supercomputer!

    Japan's Earth Simulator Center has 10 TB of main memory and the theoretical performance of 40Tflops!

    quite a system and definetely worth checking out.

  36. The irony of it all. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    An American cartoon makes a joke about the Australian government booting a kid in the arse.

    Yet, Australia has outlawed any form of corporal or capital punishment, but the US still lets teachers hit kids and kills people with death sentences. This isn't the pot calling the kettle black, it's the pot calling the fine cutlery black.

    Australia has sane, civilised laws. The USA kills people, hits people, and arms its citizens to the teeth with guns.

    Ah, the irony of it all.

    1. Re:The irony of it all. by capnjack41 · · Score: 1, Offtopic
      Wait a minute... these days I don't think anyone tolerates kids being hit (if not for moral reasons, because they don't want to end up on the news or on NBC's Extra with an expose' or some shit). Also the U.S. doesn't actively "arm" people, it just provides a 230-year old ambiguously-worded law that seems to allow everyone the right to own firearms. Eh, what can ya do.

      But yeah, we do cook people.

      [/completely offtopic]

    2. Re:The irony of it all. by nurightshu · · Score: 1, Interesting

      The truly funny thing here is that you're taking offense to a very thinly-veiled assault on Singapore. The Simpsons episode in question was, if I remember correctly, a direct response to the caning of Michael Fay in Singapore for vandalism. So there was no insult to Australia implied; they were just a convenient beard for a nation with some interestingly draconian laws on vandalizing cars.

      As far as the death penalty goes, it may not be a deterrent to others (I can't say really), but it's certainly a deterrent to the criminal who received the sentence. Sometimes, no matter how great a particular society or gene pool is, it produces a person who simply cannot or will not stop himself or herself from killing other people. In this case, the safest recourse is the permanent removal of this person from any and all societies -- execution is simply the only way to be sure of it. Pathological recidivists aren't the only people who merit death, of course; offenders whose crimes are marked by a particularly heinous brutality should also pay the ultimate price.

      Is this valuing retribution over justice? Perhaps. But at the end of the day, I would rather end one life than endanger an unknown quantity of other, innocent, people.

      --
      They that would sacrifice their .sig space for that cliched Franklin quote deserve neither.
    3. Re:The irony of it all. by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      which part of "in time of war citizens have the right to pick up arms" needs further explanation?

      --

      People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
    4. Re:The irony of it all. by ran-o-matic · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Unfortunately, it doesn't say that. It says: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." By mentioning both a "militia" and "the people" it becomes ambiguous.

    5. Re:The irony of it all. by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2, Interesting
      An American cartoon makes a joke about the Australian government booting a kid in the arse.

      Geez, it was a cartoon. A parody. A caricature. The great thing about the Simpsons is that no group is spared from their biting satire.

      Remember this is the same cartoon that shows that all nuclear workers are inept and cause meltdowns all the time. The same show whose police force can't find sand on a beach, where the male father character spends most of his time drinking in a bar, and school children eat exercise mats for lunch because the school is so poor.

      This is a world that makes fun of Americans. All Texans are gun-toting cowboys. New Yorkers are unapologetically rude. Southerners are incestuous hicks. Californians are beach bums that say "Dude" a lot.

      Other countries are not spared: Europeans are all pony-tail wearing Euro-trash. Canadiens are nice people who will do anything for an American dollar. Koreans are slave driving animators. British people are both rigidly proper and trash-burning soccer hooligans. I mean does anybody really take any of this as fact. No one really believes that Australians punish people by booting them.

      It's unfortunate that you take offense to it, but your generalization of Americans is just the same as the Simpsons generalization of Australians except that theirs was meant to be a parody.

      By the way, American doesn't arm its citizens. We do that ourselves.

      especially in Texas.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    6. Re:The irony of it all. by ran-o-matic · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Interesting point, but this code is defining militia in terms of military law - cannot remove a perceived ambiguity from the Constitution.

  37. It's coming. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some guy's trying to port Linux to a Coke can first, just to get in the swing of it.

  38. And Adelaide is considered to be slow anyway... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Adelaide is a quaint little town. And that's its problem. It calls itself the city of churches, it's so boring!

    The general opinion of the residence of the two big capitals (Melbourne and Sydney) is that Adelaide is a small, slow, and boring place filled with old people with little more to do than act like wine snobs.

    Hell, the one thing Adelaide had going for it was the Grand Prix, and Melbourne took that away years ago. Adelaide has nothing but low land prices in the centre of the city... and that's because no-one wants to be there!

    Adelaide is a hole. Ask anyone that doesn't live in South Australia.

    1. Re:And Adelaide is considered to be slow anyway... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've never been in a small town with such bad traffic problems except for Christchurch which had the same town planner.

    2. Re:And Adelaide is considered to be slow anyway... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And full of bogans.

    3. Re:And Adelaide is considered to be slow anyway... by Cackmobile · · Score: 1

      Being from Sydney I agree. What a hole. But they do have Coopers on tap everywhere.

      Hmmmmm Coopers Red...

      --
      -- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
    4. Re:And Adelaide is considered to be slow anyway... by hdparm · · Score: 1

      I am sure you were somewhere else - there's no traffic in Christchurch.

    5. Re:And Adelaide is considered to be slow anyway... by mallie_mcg · · Score: 1

      Hmmmmm Coopers Red

      Dude its called Sparkling Ale.

      Pesonally I am just as happy drinking pale ale as sparkling, the sparkling I find leaves a more potent odour in the small room at some point in the morning if you follow my drift.

      Im referring to taking a dump btw for people who will think hurling, Sparkling just reacts with people down here, maybe its the weather, but bugger me!

      --


      Do the following really mean anything? SCSA MCP CCSA CCNA
      --I'm not actually after an answer!
    6. Re:And Adelaide is considered to be slow anyway... by Cackmobile · · Score: 1

      Yep, I know. We just refer to them as Red and Green as its easier.

      --
      -- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
    7. Re:And Adelaide is considered to be slow anyway... by mallie_mcg · · Score: 1

      Heathens! ;^)

      Who am I to talk, I'm no longer a uni student, I can afford Guinness and Kilkenney's now :)

      --


      Do the following really mean anything? SCSA MCP CCSA CCNA
      --I'm not actually after an answer!
  39. They went to a lot of trouble....... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...just to accomplish what could be had by stepping outside.

  40. Two up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, and I bet the damn Aussies just use it to work out the odds in that stupid two up games!

  41. Link by KFury · · Score: 1

    Almost forgot the all-important supporting link.

  42. Never mind the computer. by torpor · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Show me the sheep dip, mate!!!

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  43. Coming in Third Means What? by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 1

    Coming in second is being the first loser, so what is coming in third?

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  44. Re:imagine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    post our kernel compile times?

  45. teraflops? by fatboyslack · · Score: 2, Funny

    Isn't that what an impotent Bin Laden would suffer? Or is that any impotent person? Maybe its fear of 'flopsy'?
    *sigh*
    its the end of the week and I'm going home in four minutes. What is this crap? In other news, Germany has built the 90th largest ship in the world, the US has finished construction on the thirteenth smallest... you get the idea.

    --
    Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. -- Leo Tolstoy
  46. Sun? by kramer2718 · · Score: 1

    Did anyone else misread that as SPARC unveils new supercomputer?

    HA!!

    1. Re:Sun? by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 1

      Yes, me. Here's that story.

      --

      In Soviet America the banks rob you!
  47. Re:imagine by scotartt · · Score: 1

    no, it would be 'buggers'. still the all-purpose aussie vernacular swear word that can range from very friendly to fairly hostile.

    --
    -A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed-
  48. How fast is this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know it can do like weather simulations or calculate a nuclear blast or something... But does anyone have a more "real-world" explanation of how fast these supercomputers are? What can they do in real-time that I'd understand or be able to relate to?

    1. Re:How fast is this? by POds · · Score: 1

      really really really fast!!!

      --


      Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
  49. What do you get... by siskbc · · Score: 1

    ...when you multiply 6 times 9?

    --

    -Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat

  50. Cluster this and cluster that by jabbadabbadoo · · Score: 1
    When did a cluster become a supercomputer? It may be a powerful cluster, but that doesn't make it a computer. In singularis, see?

    Put Apache on it and we'll /. it in mere seconds.

  51. of course being aussie ... by Suchetha · · Score: 1

    it's cooled by beer.. and is powered by splitting the beer atom

    --

    learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
    or one out of three ain't bad
  52. compensating for something? by lingqi · · Score: 4, Funny
    Last place I worked, each developer got his own personal 16-processor machine with 8 GB of RAM for application testing. These weren't servers. They were workstations, individual workstations for individual developers to use.

    Aww that's nothing. Last place I worked everybody - including the janitorial staff, had their own robotic assistants modeled after Natalie Portman, and the personal computers everyone used for were liquid nitrogen cooled Cray with 295 GaAs based processors, and just over half a TB of memory pre system. That and the computers were connected to dual 40" OLED panels capable of 3640x2400 resolution each at 1500:1 contrast. Every system had neurological with supplimental eye-tracking input systems so you can think about moving the cursor in the 3D desktop and it would be done before you finished thinking about it. And that's only the computer for just reading and writing email! you should see the stuff we used for application development and integration testing. Pff.

    --

    My life in the land of the rising sun.

    1. Re:compensating for something? by Doobian+Coedifier · · Score: 1

      Mmmm.... Beowulf cluster of Natalie Portman droids...

      (oh my god its late)

    2. Re:compensating for something? by Alpha_Nerd · · Score: 1

      Wait a sec...

      You're lying!

      That was in Swordfish!

  53. The University of Adelaide... by CaptainPotato · · Score: 5, Informative
    ...will do almost anything for a bit of publicity at the moment. As the eighth university of the so-called 'Group of Eight' premier league institutions in the country, the University of Adelaide is a mess at present. There is little leadership, poor strategic planning, a recent Government survey that slammed it in many areas, and so on. The announcement of this new system is meant to show how technologically advanced the place is, and how it leads the way.

    This couldn't be further from the truth. Ask the postgraduates, who have Mac LCIIs and 486-DX33s on their desks (I kid you not). Ask the academics, who have been retrenched in recent years (in some facultis, 25% of academic staff lost their jobs because of the university's financial problems), ask the users of its library, which has HUGE funding problems.

    Whilst the new machine may be very nice and have some power, the University of Adelaide really sees it only as a PR campaign (hell, it even made it to Slashdot!), rather than anything significant for the sake of scientific advancement - okay, the researchers, who will use it may have a different opinion, but not the University iself.

    --
    I heard that your library burnt down and destroyed your only two books - and one was not even coloured in yet.
    1. Re:The University of Adelaide... by phatsharpie · · Score: 1

      I see RMIT isn't the only tech university in Australia to be in deep financial doo-doo. From personal experience, I can say that RMIT's support for faculty and students aren't much better. The computer labs are way over-crowded, and the equipments are ridiculously old. It's really a shame. RMIT has a great reputation, but so far I haven't really been getting the kind of education and support I was expecting. At least the teaching is better than Monash or Swinbourne (or so I hear).

      -B

    2. Re:The University of Adelaide... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hang on, I thought half the 'Group of Eight' premier league institutions could fit that definition. The 3 that I'm involved with certainly do.

    3. Re:The University of Adelaide... by tconnors · · Score: 2, Funny

      At least the teaching is better than Monash or Swinbourne (or so I hear).

      Hey, I take offense :)

      Oh wait, there is no teaching in astrophysics as Swinburne, we just steal all the postgrad students from the other universities.

    4. Re:The University of Adelaide... by tconnors · · Score: 1

      In Heaven music is English, girls Australian, beer German.In Hell beer is Australian, girls English, music German

      Hey, I take offense. Ausatralian beer is OK, english girls are fucking awesome (what is that cute kurvy cook-girl we see on the ABC?), and german music is great (Alex deLarge, Ramstein)

    5. Re:The University of Adelaide... by phatsharpie · · Score: 1

      HEHE... Didn't mean to offend, mate! ;-)

      I have to admit that Swinburne does have the best UI research though! RMIT dropped their usability track after I enrolled, and that was the track I wanted to follow for my postgrad! Oh well... Maybe I'll go and get a second degree from Swinburne if I can afford it. :-D

      -B

    6. Re:The University of Adelaide... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You all seem to be from Australia, so I'm about to go way off topic here. I'm in Ontario, Canada, and we have ourselves an Aussie Rules Football league, and we're just getting into our second season, competing against some 7 or 8 year old teams. Needless to say, we're not the greatest on field. I need places in Australia to order/get good training material. Any info you can give would be great.

      Thanks in advance.

    7. Re:The University of Adelaide... by adam872 · · Score: 1

      Heaven: English Music, Belgian Beer and Aussie Girls

      Tconnors, I believe you are thinking of Nigella Lawson. Fwoaaaar :)

  54. Australia's fastest supercomputer... by DamonSearle · · Score: 2, Informative

    is the APAC Alphaserver SC located at the Australian National University in Canberra and is 63rd on the top500.org list at 825.50 GFlops Rmax http://nf.apac.edu.au/facilities/

  55. Re:Difference? caliphate of death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    well, both nodes dont like your brand of terrorist supporting shit rhetoric. you are a terrorist supporter, and a fabricator, and a twisted lying deluded dangerous person. you are a killer, you condone killing, you have been an accomplice to the killing of those you brand infidels. your sharia, your clitoris carving, your arms shipments, your suicide bombers, your twisted leaders and exceptionally corrupt goverments and your cultist religion wil suffer. you pig lover swine actually have the audacity to characterize god, to mold him and twist him. He cannot be formulated by a feeble human mind. you are too weak to even begin to understand god. you are at best a plebian. Your cultist terrorist religions will, if there is a hell, secure a very warm place there. You swine goat pigdogs speak on god behalf, your false prophet cannot even tell if God is Satan, or Satan is god. you do the bidding of the devil here. You are bastions of satan, the worshippers of the fallen angel, and you spread blackness death and lies all in tghe Name of God. Its ironic how evil you are. It is. If you little fulminating bitches exacerbate the world into a day of reckoning - I reckon this. I know I would rather burn everything to ash than let you fuckers win.

  56. Reason for the funny number, mate... by Mr_Glooby · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, I live in Australia, and note the confusion caused by the number 258, so here is why...
    The number between 5 and 7 may not be spoken here because of its similarity (when spoken with a New Zealand accent) with a certain act often carried out between mammals.
    In fact a whole new mathematical system is being developed (based on pictograms) to avoid political insensitivities in the Land where legislation has been passed to the effect that children access the internet, and so the internet must not contain content (including numbers) that might corrupt the young.
    The pictogram for the number that dare not speak its name is an image of two trees. (tree and tree is s.x).
    Similarly, three trees with 'watermarks' (evidence of the recent passing of puppydogs with full bladders) represents the number 99. (dirty tree + dirty tree + dirty tree = 99).
    The same pictogram with underscores (here called doggy doo-doos) represents 100.
    (dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd...)

    Besides, our new supercomputer sure beats the 286 we've had to share for the last 10 years! Them Y2K problems are getting to be a real pain!

  57. We've a super computer, yet the CS department sux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You mean to say my university has a super computer and I knew nothing about it!

    The real issue though is the uni has a super computer, but yet the Computer Science department's computers are still so crap they are virtually unusable.

    It takes a good couple of minutes to log in with the macs, and If you use one type of mac, it stuffs up your settings for the other ones.

    The Sunrays run painfully slow, and the available programs are so dated it makes doing any serious coding a chore (unless you're the vi type :) ). On top of that, random server crashes are not uncommon, and computers which don't bring back a login prompt when they've been logged out are not fun when you've already got 2x more people than computers trying to finish off that ambiguous assignment you were given.

    The CS Department as a whole is simply crap, but the hardware is unadequate to say the least. That's why I do all my CS work at home. At least the set up SSH properly, which brings me onto my next beef with the Engineering department....

    JC

  58. So who gives a shit? by nzyank · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The world's 80th fastest computer was unveiled today. Well I keep submitting articles about the world's 1st worst broadband service, NZ Telecom Jetstream and they never get posted. I mean really now... the world's *80th* fastest and that's important enough to get posted? Slashdot just keeps getting better and more relevant by the day.

    1. Re:So who gives a shit? by nzyank · · Score: 0, Troll

      Yeah, mod me off topic. Fucking idiot. The topic was the world's 80th fastest computer and I replied. 'who gives a shit' which is very much on topic because it's a waste to come on /. to see interesting stuff and see this crap instead.

  59. Supercomputers by [cx] · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When will the speed stop mattering?
    What is the theoretical speed of 0 latency for computations?

    This may seem like a stupid question, but I never heard once in star trek them saying our computer is such and such fast. They must have reached a limit that allowed them almost instant computation.

    So what would that be in our measured terms however primitive they might be in the longterm outcome of our computers?

    10000 Ghz? 1 Million ghz?

    I dont know,
    any biters on this bait?

    1. Re:Supercomputers by The_DOD_player · · Score: 1

      I bite ..

      When will speed stop mattering? .. never.
      There are physical limits to how small and fast a computer can be made, thus the computer will always have a finite speed.
      A computer at any finite speed can be bogged down by poor programming or heavy algorithms.
      while(1) fork(); Will bog down any computer, no matter how fast it is.

      Remember First Contact?
      Data locked out the main computer using a fractal encryption code, that the Borg was unlikely to break. That indicates that the Borg only has finite computing power.
      With infinite computing power they would have broken the code instantly.

    2. Re:Supercomputers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If Star trek says so then I guess you got me..

    3. Re:Supercomputers by SquareOfS · · Score: 1
      Why on earth was this modded interesting? The only interesting thing about is the misconceptions that make it possible.

      What is the theoretical speed of 0 latency for computations?

      (a) The theoretical "speed" of 0 latency is just that: theoretical (or maybe fictitious is a better word). Nothing in the real physical world happens with 0 latency.

      (b) So let's talk about when we have a "perceived 0" latency . . . which would mean, umm, operations conducted in units asymptotically approaching Planck time? Or something. Anyway, ridiculously fast. Point is, it stil matters what you're going to calculate. And if you decide to calculate the factorial of googolplex, well, that'll probably still hurt.

      (c) But let's posit a machine that does the factorial of googolplex in perceived-0-latency. What's it do with the factorial of googolplex raised to the googolplex power? The point is that you can always describe, in an instant, a computation that is any arbitrary order of magnitude more complex than the fast computation.

      (d) so the real question you're asking, what's the speed at which computers become perceived-instantaneous for all interesting problems.

      And, of course, the answer depends on what the interesting problems are. I think recent history shows that our appetite for computation actually grows faster than the supply. In other words, the minute someone hands us an "Earth Simulator", we can immediately think of all the cool things we could do if it could simulate at higher fidelity (i.e., do more computation faster). And that'll always happen, because we'll always want to model more complex phenomena with greater fidelity. And, as has also been pointed out on this thread, there are inherent limitations around things like light-speed and the parallelism of a problem (i.e., how many pieces can a problem be subdivided into and how fast do they need to talk to each other drives how far apart they can be and still function). Grace Murray Hopper used to hold up a piece of wire, about a foot long, to show how far apart things could be at 1ns-latency at lightspeed. Some limits are fundamental.

      [Becoming an inveterate geek]

      Of course, in Star Trek the computers run immersed in subspace fields that make them superluminal, so . . .

      [Friends pull me back to something like normal]
    4. Re:Supercomputers by Seanasy · · Score: 1

      Supercomputers are usually rated in FLOPS like this one is in the article. FLOPS = FLoating Point Operations per Second. So, it's the number of calculations it can do per second. More processors means more theoretical FLOPS. The speed will stop mattering when we can simulate the entire universe in real-time. At which point, I imagine, the universe will stop mattering.

      This has nothing to do with Ghz. Processor speed is irrelevant insofar as the speed of calculations is what really matters.

    5. Re:Supercomputers by SquareOfS · · Score: 1
      Interesting point, one I first realized while arguing about deterministic materialism in philosophy class.

      Positing that the universe is in fact deterministic, where would the computer that simulates the universe sit? Where is there enough room?

      As long as you need more than one atom to simulate an atom, this is going to be a problem.

  60. Re:imagine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    who the hell uses the word buggers?

  61. But... by darxyde · · Score: 0

    can it run Doom III?

    --
    Hey relax fella, you need a rest, guy.
  62. Giant supercomputer simulates itself! by mulhall · · Score: 1

    What would Slartibartfast say?

  63. Go Oz... by Cackmobile · · Score: 2, Funny

    Aim high, we build this whiz bang thing and its only No. 80 in the world. What happened to Aussies innovation. We used to be able to build these things out of old fosters cans.

    --
    -- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
    1. Re:Go Oz... by mallie_mcg · · Score: 2, Informative

      Aim high, we build this whiz bang thing and its only No. 80 in the world. What happened to Aussies innovation. We used to be able to build these things out of old fosters cans.

      I Call you out, you are not an Aussie, for fucks sake mate, no aussie will willingly drink fosters beer, let alone in cans, and those that do, well they revoked their citizenship.

      --


      Do the following really mean anything? SCSA MCP CCSA CCNA
      --I'm not actually after an answer!
    2. Re:Go Oz... by Cackmobile · · Score: 1

      Fair call. but would anyone outside Oz really know VB or Tooheys. FOsters is the Oz beer around the world. Just like Steinlager for NZ which I am reliably told but by Kiwi mates that no one drinks.

      --
      -- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
    3. Re:Go Oz... by mallie_mcg · · Score: 1

      Touche`, I am shocked that VB is entering all my local pubs, I am more shocked in seeing people actually pay money for it. Tooheys, meh, I'm from Adelaide, what can I say, I dont buy local bottled beer, imported bottled beer when Im being a dick or doing the Earl of Leister beer challenge (www.earl.com.au). Favourites: Labbats Blue, Moosehead and Kronenbourg (french beer aparantly), Belle View Criek (spelling is fucked, its the beer that was fermented with cherries in it) is a nice one for a change.

      --


      Do the following really mean anything? SCSA MCP CCSA CCNA
      --I'm not actually after an answer!
    4. Re:Go Oz... by Cackmobile · · Score: 1

      Adelaide....YOu guys got Coopers on Tap. as if people drink VB or Tooheys when you can have that. I'm living in England at the moment and all the pubs here have Kronenburg. But its the crappy English brewed stuff. The French stuff is much better. If you want nice beer try Belgian. I went there last week. Best beer ever. Try Primus, Jupiler or Stella. Or Leffe etc. So good.

      MMMMM Beer!

      --
      -- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
    5. Re:Go Oz... by mallie_mcg · · Score: 1

      Need I add that I homebrew too! Woot free beer!

      Back you bastards, I mean its free for me! Back I say.

      --


      Do the following really mean anything? SCSA MCP CCSA CCNA
      --I'm not actually after an answer!
    6. Re:Go Oz... by adam872 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, particularly when you can have Coopers. Fosters: bleaaaaaggghh. I live in Houston these days and thankfully my favourite Coopers variety is available (Pale). They also have a nice selection of those wonderful Belgian beers: Hoegaarden, Leffe, Jupiler, Chimay etc etc

  64. Yeah baby! by kauttapiste · · Score: 1

    Oh yes, I'd like to tickle that baby with my MPI calls.. Or maybe some HPF hanky-panky with some nice loop vectorisation. Uuuuh..naughty.

  65. Re:But... wtf are you on about by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd say you're talking out of your arse, but since it's been 4 years since I lived there, let's see a source.

  66. Re:imagine by hdparm · · Score: 1
    Most Ausies and Kiwis do. It is so common nowadays that hardly anybody finds it offensive. Apart from some morons from NZ Consumer Protection something... who wanted TV ads for Holden utes, in which word was used repeatedly, banned. Ads were quite funny and quite a reflection of everyday living down here.

    Back to topic, though - is this thing even close to Weta's cluster performance?

  67. Re:imagine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    there won't be any time in that case, i reckon

  68. Source of 42 FYI by Daath · · Score: 1

    Oh and for the "uneducated" the obligatory reading is Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" :)

    --
    Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
  69. They'¨ve got it all by CausticWindow · · Score: 1

    Supercomupters and Olympic Arnold Schwarzeneger stadiums (in Graz).

    --
    How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
  70. Why was this posted on Slashdot.org. by mallie_mcg · · Score: 1

    I'll tell you why, the guy who posted is a troll, a slashdot troll, who posts shit on Slashdot in the vain hope of increasing his google search rating (front page slashdot story anyone??). He honestly did not expect it to get posted, in fact I just got off the phone with the bastard, he did not tell me he had access to this beast, well he doesnt really :(, and I was thinking of converting my DVD collection (and all of video-eazy's to DivX ($12-15US/month unlimited DVD hire, max 3 per time or something like that).

    Dont believe me? Ask the man yourself. Find my resume on da net and give his mobile a call!

    Max props n shout outs to da peeps in dah hood and dem in da node!

    --


    Do the following really mean anything? SCSA MCP CCSA CCNA
    --I'm not actually after an answer!
  71. Re:imagine by mallie_mcg · · Score: 1

    Most Ausies and Kiwis do. It is so common nowadays that hardly anybody finds it offensive. Apart from some morons from NZ Consumer Protection something... who wanted TV ads for Holden utes, in which word was used repeatedly, banned. Ads were quite funny and quite a reflection of everyday living down here.

    Fuck the number of posts I've had to correct tonight, i dont care about speeling or grammars, hehe, please people get your facts straight, the company in question was "TOYOTA" advertising the "HILUX" not the holden ute, Holden advertised a "storm" GenIII V8 ute doing circle work (doughies) in a paddock, they wanted it banned because it promoted dangerous driving.

    No go have a beer and get your shit together before posting again this week!

    --


    Do the following really mean anything? SCSA MCP CCSA CCNA
    --I'm not actually after an answer!
  72. We have already done it :-) by mritunjai · · Score: 1

    CDAC of India already has developed 1T flops super computers based on SUN Ultrasparc-II cpus. The system has primary storage capacity of 5 TB. The communication backbone can be any of CDAC's own PARAMNet at a peak bandwidth of 50 MB/s bi-directional, Myrinet at 160 MB/s, ATM at 155/622 Mb/s, or Fast Ethernet.

    Currently work is going on to make a 10T Flop grid across country linking all premiere research and educational institutes and industrial establishments.

    --
    - mritunjai
  73. spam in australia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i have an australian friend who told me that australians refer to spam as "veggie" as in vegimite. is this true ?

    1. Re:spam in australia by POds · · Score: 1

      I've never heard of it. SPAM is spam to me... Its more likly Aussies like myself would adopt whatever Americans use. The reason is that the internet was formed in America, there a many more people who use it, and when something new terms come downunder (internet wise) i'd guess their gunna come from the US. So :) we speak what you speak!!! :)

      --


      Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
    2. Re:spam in australia by Rip!ey · · Score: 1

      There are a lot of assumptions made about Australians, and our country, by those outside of it. In fact, many of us like to help things along, just for a laugh.

      Your friend would be one such person :-)

  74. It's funny... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Playstation 3 is going to run at this speed and will only cost ~$300.

  75. In Hell... by phatsharpie · · Score: 1

    >In Heaven music is English, girls Australian, beer German.In Hell beer is Australian, girls English, music German

    I think in Hell the beer is American (Budweiser), girls non-existent, and music is Japanese pop.

    -B

    1. Re:In Hell... by be-fan · · Score: 1

      Man, you just described my college, right on the dot...

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  76. Clusters are not supercomputers by SolidBrass · · Score: 1

    and should not be called such.

  77. 1.2 teraops is puny! by peter303 · · Score: 1

    The record holder is 35 teras Japan Earth Simulator. IBM ASCII-Q will be 100 teras soon. NOAA turned on a 7.3 tera compter today (NY Times). Last week the DOE hooked together a bunch of game-cubes to make a $50K tera computer.

  78. Albatross! by Larsing · · Score: 1

    What flavour is it?

    There's no flavour! It's bloody albatross flavour!

    --
    Ethics is what you say you do. Morals is what you actually do.
  79. The only reason it works... by PSaltyDS · · Score: 1

    Linux is too good at this stuff. It only has this advanced clustering capability because it jacked all the hard work over at SCO, right? Imagine a SCO Unix cluster of these things!

    All seriousness aside, isn't that part of SCO's claim, that a bunch of suposed part-time amature hackers and script kiddies could never have produced a product that would work in this environment without stealing the "real" works from a big company?

    --
    Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
  80. Dialogue by BigBadBri · · Score: 1
    Bruce: Hey, Bruce, we need something to count all these sheep.

    Bruce: Yeah, Bruce - how about this bonzer cluster of Xeons over here?

    Bruce: Nah - it'll never work - it's only 1.2 teraflops, and the cooling system sucks.

    Bruce: Yeah - you're right there, mate - we'd better go with the Cray again. All that Freon sure keeps the tinnies cool.

    Bruce: Now that's what I call a sheepacomputer.

    --
    oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
  81. Mod parent up. by Rip!ey · · Score: 1

    Please. That is totally deserving of it.

  82. Re:But... wtf are you on about by Chmarr · · Score: 1

    Gee... it's not like this wasn't covered on Slashdot several times. I can't find it in the Slashdot articles, though, so here's a reference to the EFA.

    http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/sabill.html

  83. So /. community is REALLY biased?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    well ppl...recently when india built it's super computer . ppl out here on this board shrugged it off as a futile attempt by a bunch of assholes who should content themselves with feeding their hungry and let the better people from the so called first world do the better stuff.......
    plz someone enlighten me....why??

  84. Re:Difference? caliphate of death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    quit wasting your time and keystrokes

  85. Re:What? No T-Mobile Sidekick cluster yet? by Bri3D · · Score: 1

    Don't forget the floppy drive RAID array!

  86. Newsworthy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are a number of more massive clusters, even if you stick to the 1350 clustering configuration.

    But the 1350 is really slick. I have the fortune of getting to work with a number of these clusters every day.

    I really don't know what I can say, but I can at least point out that website: http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/clusters/hard ware/1350.html
    (remember there should be no space between 'hard' and 'ware')

    1. Re:Newsworthy? by anetic · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately or fortunately these days in order to get a job a fair percentage of the time you need to know someone, similarlily if you are going to spend big bucks on a big box one often buys in the direction of influence and/or allegiences. I have been following this story via the net I first picked up the thread on a so called reputable Australian Science site wherein I have since learnt that most of the facts reported there about 'Hydra' are totally wrong or incorrect, similarly wherever I continue to read about this story the facts or more precisely the numbers and as to whether they are significant or not are always further misconstrued. They are probably running Linux because they can just go down to the newsagent and buy a magazine for a few bucks and get the latest software update in the included cdroms. Pobably what they are completly unware of is just how many extra big bucks they are going to have to spend on support from Big Blue, If on the other hand they had bought an Apple XServe Cluster they wouldn't have to spend a penny on support or software and they would probably only have to have spent a tenth of what they spent on the BIG BLUE BOX they got. Who ever said that Universities were full of intelligient people ?

  87. Keep up the international pressure by mholt108 · · Score: 1

    As an Aussie i think we need to be constantly embarrassed about this issue. Generally speaking we are a fair country, at least compared to many others, but the current policy towards refugees is inhumane and unpopular here.

    So keep up the parodies, pressure and insults until this government is embarrassed into fixing the arcane mandatory detention system.

    BTW if there are any BETTER ideas for controlling the infulx of illegal refugees i would love to hear them. The best one i know is to support the countries of origin so that people do not feel the need to leave in the first place.

    m

  88. Re:Difference? caliphate of death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    asking someone to stop because the truth burns like a lance through your black, murderious lying propagandist cultist heart. islamofascist murderer wants this opposition to die, you would like to make me stop, wouldnt you. my crime is punishable by death like Rushdie, who wrote a work of fiction (the story begins by two people surviving a fall from 50,000 ft) but it still warrants death.

    We see your evil We will resist.

  89. gigatraraflops if it dont work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if it dont work being as how fast it is how would it rate if it flops on the market?
    flops:
    giga flops?
    trara flops
    megahertz flops
    ect flops lol

  90. What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What the hell whore fuck are you talking about?