Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Drooling Over VA Tech's 1100-Node G5 Cluster

Posted by pudge on from the more-pics-wanted dept.

Mr. Slurpee writes "Virginia Tech's 1100-node dual 2 GHz Apple G5 Terascale Cluster is getting racked up and ready to roar. If you're a penniless geek like me, at least there's some tech pr0n for us to drool over. There's 1100 of them ... think they could part with one?" Update: 09/22 02:55 GMT by T : Matt submits a link to this full mirror of the photos, writing "The page owner's comment on the original mirror being taken down due to bandwidth? 'Bring it on!'"

5 of 441 comments (clear)

  1. Why G5s? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Why are they using G5s? These Macs are for looking good, for style & class, for home or office, not for getting jammed into racks as in the pics.

    What's the point? Do they actually offer anything over a similar PC? Do VA's apps only run on PPC? Surely it's a pretty expensive option, and all those good looks wasted... :)

  2. Re:Why expect reason in this case? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Because they didn't have to pay for it. VATech received the grant from an 'anonymous donor' for the project. 10 to 1 the money came directly from Jobs. I guess when he saw that all the real clusters were being built with Opterons he needed to show a G5 cluster could compete. Unfortunately for him this market is more concerned with price/performance than pretty cases.

  3. Ordering through iTunes by AllMightyPaul · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Though those of you who aren't at VT can't see this image, it's still quite hilarious.

    Apparently Tech ordered the G5s through iTunes: http://computing.vt.edu/research_computing/terasca le/images/g5ordering/IMG_0099.JPG

  4. Nope, read the stories by FredFnord · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    The boxes were purchased at the standard academic discount price from Apple. Not even a volume discount. It's said so in at least two of the articles I read about this story.

    But the truth usually doesn't stand very well against the 'obviously true', does it?

    -fred

    --
    Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
  5. malice and ignorance by jefu · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    The old saying goes "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

    But when it comes to web designers these days, I suspect they've either got major stock in adobe (pdf), in microsoft (IE specific code) or in macromedia (flash).

    So I'd be tempted to rewrite it as "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stock ownership."

    Though, I do know enough web designers that I suspect few own stock and I know just how lazy and incapable many of them are. So, more sensibly it should be written as "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by a complete inability to learn anything more difficult than 'Dick and Jane do Power Point'."

    And the fact that so many of our educational institutions are on all fours for the convenience of Microsoft and other corporations helps not a whit to alleviate the general witlessness.