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A Look Inside Virginia Tech's New Super Computer
Mr Bob "The original" bougert brings us "...a video of the Virginia Tech super computer centre. How many people think that super computer centres like this, with their reasonably cheap cost should be created in more places? This video of the infamous super computer should be interesting to some and pretty to look for others." It views like an ad for Apple, but Virginia Tech has scored quite an achievement with this milestone, and this should serve as a decent introduction for those unfamiliar with the project.
This is a repost of "Xgrid Clustering Software and Demo" in the Apple section..it's just one of the links listed in the story.
Scott
so we are going to post it anyway ?
Apple isnt a charity, shall we see what Microsoft are up to ?
iGrow tired of all these apple stories.
It views like an ad for Apple,
Gee, did the fact that it was hosted at apple.com clue you in?
Here I was feeling manly because i just upgraded my mac to 1Gig of Ram.
:-)
I wish I could have this in my basement.. and I would serve old games of quarterstaff on it.
I am the lord of the pun. Dance Knave!
build your own with xGrid!
3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
...what they could do now for the same cost using the new Xserve dual 2 Ghz G5.
Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
512K L2 cache/processor
1GHz system bus/processor
512B DDR400 ECC SDRAM
80GB Serial ATA drive
Dual Gigabit Ethernet
All for only $3000. They could really built a small, inexpensive cluster with a couple thousand of those.
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
Virginia Tech put together a spectacular number 3 ranked supercomputer for a (comparative) pittance in a (comparative) heartbeat. They did it with Apple's latest/greatest. Is it surprising that Apple wants this story told? I'm just shocked that they aren't filling the airwaves with the story (at the very least on every news program that PHBs watch).
It's currently #3
This is just a reposting of an earlier Slashdot article, and should be modded down.
Congratulations - you've found an occupation even lower than troll: plagarist.
Sailing over the event horizon
it's nice to know that after a hap-hazard movie career, Fisher Stevens can go on to do an Apple Commercial about the Virgina Tech Super Computer. He can put on a clever discuise, but the minute he said 'Oh no Jonny Five', I knew it was him.
I was amazed at the cost/performance ratio that they were able to achieve with Big Mac. Over at Barefeats.com, they point out that a Dual 2ghz G5 is roughly 17% faster AND more expensive than a Dual 1.8 G5 - keeping the cost/performance ratio fairly equal. Taking this out to supercomputer levels, the #1 supercomputer is three and a half times faster than Big Mac but cost 60x as much money!!! Amazing.
The video states that the top two cost in the hundreds of millions to build...but never says how long ago. Dont get me wrong the Mac cluster is quite impressive and inexpensive but the price to power ratio has been changing quite rapidly just in the last few months! So if you rebuilt the top two today how would they rank pricewise?
The project leader, Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan, will be speaking at a session entitled Building Virginia Tech's G5 Supercluster on Jan 28 at the upcoming O'Reilly Mac OS X conference.
He'll probably reveal some of the technical details, such as the version of Mac OS X used, at that session.
Also, according to a blog at O'Reilly:
Next year, all the little known details [about the cluster] will be revealed in a new book. By that time we'll know what the project means for supercomputing and for Apple.
Does anyone know the relative speeds of todays PCs vs. an old super computer from the 80s?
UMass had one of those Connection Machines with the 65k processes and the blinking lights sitting unused in the basement for awhile and I was always curious to know whether it was any faster than what could be done serially with a 3GHz PC.
Synergies are basically awesome, and they're even better when you leverage them. -PA
Apple doesn't place a giant markup on its products. They put a lot of money into product and industrial design. Therefore, Apple computer's cost more.
Virginia Tech did not get a discount on those machines. They purchased 1100 Dual 2ghz G5s at full price and spent around 3.5 million dollars on those machines. And other 1.5 to 2 million was spent on networking hardware, software, racks, etc.
Furthermore. You don't have to buy individual licenses for OS X. OS X server comes with an unlimited client license and you can put it on as many computers as you please. Or, you can decide to use OS X (client), and every new Mac comes with that for free anyway. There are also no serial number or license activation annoyances involved with OS X.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
And with this server we are able to kick out photoshopped images at an ALARMING rate!
Dell doesn't really develop a lot of software. Apple does.
And, yes, Apple builds it's machines outside of the US as well.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
hasn't anyone else built one yet? The proof-of-concept is done, and let's face it, $5.2 million is tissue money for some companies. Don't they want their own 10 teraflop supercomputer?
I mean OS X...shouldda hit 'preview'
:/
Alright. It's time to crawl out of the hole.
Download VLC or MPlayer. They both play Quicktime files and Sorenson 3 Quicktime files. Moreover, they play them better then the QuickTime player does. (they also play just about everything else in the world)
Every Linux user should have one, or both, of these media player installed on their machines. Seriously.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
The V-T supercomputer runs on Mac OS 10.3, not Linux
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/mwsf04/
Yes, I'm karma-whoring...and you do it too, damnit!
Blogging Weight Loss, Distance Education, and more at verlin.com
I don't think that is accurate. Yes the interconnect is VERY important, but the mesurement is the number of floating point operations per second that the machine can perform. This is purely a measurement of the raw processing power available. You can have the fastest interconnect in the world, but if your CPUs can't keep up it is all for nothing. Likewise, without the ability to feed those processors, the performance will suffer. To use the (flawed) analogy of a cluster to your desktop machine, think of InfiniBand as the bus to the individual processors (nodes).
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
Why does Cliff repeatedly use the word "infamous" (a synonym of "notorious") to describe nifty things, like a supercomputer. He did it earlier today with the article about the Internet Archive.
Maybe he's using the Three Amigos definition of the word...
Life is like a web application. Sometime you need cookies just to get by.
OS X server comes with an unlimited client license and you can put it on as many computers as you please.
Nope. Unlimited clients mean that unlimited clients can connect to the server. You still have to have separate OS licenses for your client machines. But this has nothing to do with clusters that run regular OS X.
So if I'm an evil dictator, and I can build the worlds third fastest supercomputer for 5.2 million USD what can I do with it? Are all these cheap cycles going to mean I can break codes or do nuclear or biological weapons research faster? I'll be there are people in the US Defense Department, CIA, or NSA that might be concerned.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." -- Marx
"At a price of 5.2 million dollars, practically anyone can build one. "
I think I'll invest in one of these right after I pay off my iPod.
If you just want it to show in moz/firebird rather than having to find the link and leech it first, use the mplayerplug-in and quicktime will display in the browser.
The story goes that the person doing the project contacted Apple and they blew him off at first. He eventually purchased from the online Apple Store.
I'm sure there was room for greasing each other's palms, but I think the price was so low to begin with that there was little point it argueing over a few hundred thousand, what with the deadline they were facing.
While wathing the video during the keynote, I couldn't imagine why Apple hasn't donated the remaining G5's (Desktop or XServe) to place them in the number two supercomputer slot.
Costs more than a video but would be even better PR (and tax deductible...)
MD
The operating systems for the Earth Simulator (#1 supercomputer) is described on the following page:
e ra ting.html
http://www.es.jamstec.go.jp/esc/eng/Software/op
Because it is a vector based parallel processing machine it wouldn't be able to run standard OS's...
Paragraphs, man. They're useful.
Anyway.. no OpenMosix here, this is using MPI. Specifically, on top of DK Panda's MPI libraries, they brought Kazushige Goto in to optimize the BLAS libraries in order to obtain the Top500 ranking of 10+ TF.
Incidentally, the Top500 rankings are based on a standardized LINPACK benchmark and formula, not "raw" processor rankings. I saw another comment that implied the latter.
Other interesting notes:
I'm ready to show up to the Mac OS Refund Rally.
I even volunteer to be the tool wearing the Darth Vader mask.
A Good Intro to NetBS
My first thought when I heard about the 1100 VT deal was that when g5 xServes are available, VT will replace the PowerMac cluster and distribute the 1100 over the campus.
Any rumor of that?
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
Apple builds outside, but they seem to do most of their R&D in America. Dell, in my experience, does just the opposite excepting their apparent comparatively low amount of R&D: they do their construction in Round Rock, but more or less stick together the innovations of others. The last thing Dell actually invented that I can recall is their business model. And new ways (e.g. flaps) for a computer to collect dust bunnies unbeknownst to the owner.
In Apple's MacWorld presentation (and this film) they show how the VT supercomputer is #3 and they talk about the details, but barely touch on #2 and #1. I'm curious what operating systems primarily drive those two, but none of the searches on Google I'm doing are turning up the info that I'm seeking. Anyone have any links or resources to share that can clarify it?
Tried this?
That is one of the coolest-looking datacenters I've ever seen.
Our DC has regular fluorescent lights, and the NOC gets really uppity about it when we turn off all the lights, lay down some soft blue floorlighting, and turn on some Wagnerian New Age inspirational music in the background. Some shit about OSHA or something.
Well screw them, I'm moving my boxes to VA Tech !
It runs on 10.2 actually.
Saying that OS X (client) comes free with every new mac is like saying that the tires come free with every new car. You pay for them, they're just not a line item on the invoice.
This is really interesting! And I'm wondering how you got started. Have you done this for a while? Did you use Apple first, or PCs?
I've been doing the same (building custom PCs) for other people for years, and yet when it comes to my own computers I opt for Macs. I'm a recent convert. Why?
Because I got tired of struggling to make drivers work together, finding different games and programs were optimized for different chipsets, and dealing with Windows registries to try to make everything run as smoothly as possible.
Then I tried a Mac. Pretty much everything worked out of the box, smoothly (like it was optimized for the platform, not a specific driver), and almost everything I extra tried in it was practically designed to already work WITH what I already had in the computer. The OS is far more elegant and makes sense to my less savvy customers.
Price is often the bottom line. For the advantages, I prefer to run Macs personally. I can't fault people who opt for the dollar-accessability of PCs. I guess it's all in how you personally prioritize, and how much work you want to put into making the system work.
Damon,
http://actionPlant.com
FreeBSD with a Darwin core, you mean? I highly doubt they are using some translucent menu library in their computations. And apple really didn't develop much else than various display libraries for their system.
"Apple doesn't place a giant markup on its products. They put a lot of money into product and industrial design. Therefore, Apple computer's cost more."
Wrong. Anyone who has sold computers or has industry experience will probably let you in on a little secret: there is a tiny markup in computers. Period. Money is made in accessories and service plans.
And for (hopefully the last time)Macintoshes are not more expensive! This point has been made many many times on Slashdot. But to make it one more time (IANAMU [I am not a Mac User]):
$6,174.00
Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
4GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 4x1GB
2x250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
56k V.92 internal modem
SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
$6,634
Dell Precision Workstation 650
2 xIntel(R) Xeon(TM) Processor,3.06GHz,512K Cache
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Professional
Hyper-Threading feature preset to "ON."
Memory: 4GB,DDR266 SDRAM Memory,NECC
Keyboard: Entry Level, PS/2, No Hot Keys
Mouse: PS/2,Dell, 2 button w/no scroll
Monitor: No Monitor Option
Graphics Cards: nVidia, Quadro NVS 280, 64MB, dual monitor VGA capable
Speakers: Internal Chassis Speaker
Productivity Software: Dell Precision Workstation
4X DVD+RW/+R AND 16XDVD-ROM,DVD Decode/Sonic SE(for Professional Authoring) DRWDV4X
2x250GB SATA, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with DataBurst Cache(TM) SARC RAID
Floppy Drive: 3.5 inch 1.44MB Floppy Drive
So what was that about macintoshes being more expensive?
(Note I had to reformat the Dell Quote so that it would look ok)
Can you use iLife on those machines?
Are those machines going to be able to do 64 bit computing 2 years from now, when everything is 64 bit on both Mac and Windows ( well, maybe Windows. :^D )
I have one of those homebrew Athlon 2500 systems. Nice Antec case with the bling bling window, vantec tornado HSF, pretty blue fans, ATi 9500 Pro. It runs at 2366 Mhz on air, 100% stable. Then I got a dual 1.8 Ghz G5.
Ever since then, the PC gets used 5% of the time, and the G5 gets used the other 95%. I now use the the PC as a full time folding@home client so I get some use of it. The only thing I keep my PC around for is to play BF1942/Desert Combat, and I dont do that as much anymore either. I'm not 19 years old anymore and I can afford better.
Out of the top 5 super computers... there is 1 self-made.
Out of the top 10... 1 self-made.
Out of the top 50... 1 self-made.
This speaks volumes. Apple didn't come in and build this thing for them. They dumped a few trucks with 1,100 computers at their door and VA Tech built it.
Personally, I'd like to know how many they got that were DOA. Any?
http://windows.scares.us
Good link describing basic functions of mach kernel and BSD layer here
The mach kernel supports things like scheduler, RPC, virtual memory, multiprocessing support etc.
The BSD layer provides TCP/IP stack, API, UNIX security model, file systems etc.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
DELL
Intel(R) Celeron(R) Processor at 2.4GHz
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition
256MB Shared DDR SDRAM at 333MHz
40GB ATA/100 Value Hard Drive
48x CD-ROM Drive
DVD+RW Drive
17" monitor $399 after $100 rebate
Apple
256MB SDRAM - 1 DIMM
40GB Ultra ATA drive
Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
1GHz PowerPC G4
$850 after rebate (DELL x 2)
welcome back my reality- where dropping 6 grand for a computer is simply not an option!
Here's to finally giving Bush his exit strategy in November
BULLSHIT. MS purchased $150M of NON-VOTING STOCK in Apple. Apple didn't need the $150M at the time, really, it didn't. They still had $2B in cash at the time.
Rumor has it that the cash was to settle some patent infringment issues and another bit of payment that Apple demanded of MS for Apple dropping their claims was that MS had to commit to 5 years of development for Mac Office.
MS also had to hold the stock for two or more years. MS did so and made a shitload of money.
--Mike
It is amazing how ignorant people are to how much mark-up there are in computers.
... trust me.
I sell computers for a living, including Apple. I sell in very large quantities, to very large organizations.
Apple computers, along with Dell and HP/Compaq have tremendous internal markups. Upwards in the 30% range. The usual "5-10%" people talk about are the reseller markups, not the manufacturer markups.
The money is in accessories for resellers, not manufacturers. Get it right.
Also, Virginia Tech bought those machines at an excellent discount (compared to what other people get), but nothing extra-ordinary. Don't ever think ANYONE is getting $5,000 G5's for $4,000. That does not happen, ever. Even for orders of 5,000 machines. Literally, even not for orders of 5,000 machines
Make no mistake, Apple does not sell the majority of their products. And make no mistake, Apple's bread and butter are educational institutions. Virginia Tech got their money worth, but Apple made a pretty penny.
Now put to rest these base-less comments.
PC's, Apples, who cares. What made all this stuff possible, both technically and economically, is Infiniband. What is Infiniband? Well, think of all those special purpose, packet switched data buses and high speed networks of the past (mucho $$) and make them an industry standard (less $$) and you've got infiniband. Blows 10GB ethernet away.
That's what all the HPC (high performance computing) guys have been using to glue their clusters together. See www.infinibandta.org for more info.
Will Infiniband make it to a server near you? Only time and the economy will tell.
Yep! Microsoft announced the new Office 2004 for Mac at the MacWorld expo yesterday. Among the new features are toolbars that fade to transparent when not actively being used, so they don't eat up your available screen space, and new "fit to page" features in Excel, ensuring all your pie charts and graphs, etc. don't end up crossing between 2 seperate pages when printed out.
In fact, the MS rep made a point to comment that "Microsoft brought Word and Excel to the Mac before we ever wrote a Windows version."
Microsoft has also purchased VirtualPC from Connectix, and has VirtualPC 7.0 coming out for the Mac in the next few months - with full G5 processor support added. So yes, MS has plenty of reason to be purchasing Apple G5 computers!
thats exactly what I was geting at. People (mac-heads) gripe at those who complain that Apples are more expensive. Well, for the average consumer (web surfing, e-mail, word processing) they are!!!
you show me any consumer who needs Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 with 4 GB of ram, I'll show you 100,000,000 people who don't.
seriously, I've got an 800 MHz pentium III with 512MB RAM and I can watch a dvd, burn a cd, listen to mp3's, have MS Visual Studio.NET and NetBeans open working on 2 different projects, host Oracle, SQLServer, and mySQL and the postgreSQL client, and be browsing on several web browsers for where the hell I went wrong with my code... AT THE SAME TIME.
its great bragging rights to have a dual 2 GHz Mac with 4 GHz RAM... but that is a fscking unrealistic comparison. Really now.
Here's to finally giving Bush his exit strategy in November
They are called grad students. They even pay to be there.