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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."

23 of 227 comments (clear)

  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 deadsaijinx* · · Score: 4, Funny

      ooooh, and it even comes in designer colors. Sexy

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
    2. 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!

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

    as powerful as "the Gibson"?

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

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

  3. 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.

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

    --Pat

  5. 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!

  6. 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 ;)

  7. yeah but by toddhunter · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  8. 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!"
  9. 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.

  10. Re:Why aren't they using Athlons? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They must be worried about Global Warming.

  11. 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...

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

    Management never uses its Head. ;-)

    --

    Go permanent? In your dreams and my worst nightmares.
  13. Re:imagine by cyril3 · · Score: 4, Funny

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

  14. 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
  15. 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.

  16. 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!

  17. 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
  18. 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.