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Sun Donation Spurs Linux Cluster at Purdue

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the old-computers-and-new-opportunities dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Purdue University, with a $3.6 million gift from Sun Microsystems, is giving recycled PCs new life as a computer cluster that makes high-performance computing power available in undergraduate classes. 'Previously, my students could only do what I'd describe as 'proof' animations - small, low-resolution and not presentation quality,' [Professor Richard] Paul said. 'With access to this computing power, the students will be able to ship their software files of instructions to the Linux cluster, and it will come back in three or four hours with modeling, lighting and animation. Students will get to experience the whole thing in terms of scale and presence, and they can do longer animations.' More images of the current Linux cluster and other servers at Purdue are out there."

2 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. NEO MAKES A TRUCE BEFORE DYING, TRINITY DIES by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    The Matrix isn't destroyed. The Architect agrees to free those who want to return to Zion.

    Sorry to spoil it.

  2. Why didn't they use Apple? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    These guys could have put together a world class Mac OS X supercomputer with a real operating system for significantly less than a standard Linux "CrapOS(tm Linus Torvalds)" based one. The G5's kick everything else's ass, and when you consider that an Apple cluster is currently the creme of the crop in clusters, these guys are idiots to go with a Linux based one instead. Think Professional, Think Different, Think Apple.