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Army Contractor To Build A 1566 Xserve Cluster
olePigeon (Wik) writes "MacCentral has an interesting article on a new computer cluster. From the article: 'Apple Computer Inc. will announce on Monday the sale of 1566 dual processor 1U rack-mount 64-bit Xserve G5 servers to COLSA Corp., which will be used to build what is expected to be one of the fastest supercomputers in the world. The US$5.8 million cluster will be used to model the complex aero-thermodynamics of hypersonic flight for the U.S. Army.'" alset_tech was one of the many readers to point to
CNET's version of the story.
What, Duke Nukem Forever still isn't out yet? Hey, maybe such a computer could create Duke Nukem Forever from scratch so I could play it.
for America's Army!
Sure the computers only costs $5.8 million, but how much will the screwdrivers cost they use to install everything?
well, you know, they saw this spaceshipone on tv tonight and thought that hey, "we want one of those too".
or possibly "wtf how does that thing fly??".
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
1566 X Server cluster? That should get some decent FPS.
Ohhhh. XServe. My bad.
So does Anonymous Coward have good karma?
my love for Apple and my hatred for using technology for violence.
Oh screw it, that cluster is gonna be awesome! Forget imagining a Beowulf cluster... imagine your frame rate in Doom III!
First.
20fps.
In Doom III.
Evar!
Like Teddy with an elephant gun.
Army Contractor To Build A 1566 Xserve Cluster You totally misspelled "1337."
"Physics computations and weapons simulations so good looking, you're going to want to lick them." - Steve Jobs
"Uh, we'd advise against that sir." - Army colonel
"But he SAID I could lick them! Ooh, red, yellow and green WMD icons!" - G. W. Bush
If you need me I'll be off in the corner, sobbing over my 0.533 gigahertz G4.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Kinda hard when you're in the army ;-)
-psy
When I was in the TA (Weekenders), we had a motto very like that "Drinking is our profession, *hick* Mmugh... *hick* somethingorother... your round"
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
Not yet, but they will ;->
I think I could have made Duke Nukem Forever by now. No need for a supercomputer.
Game... blouses.
...But only one mouse button.
:P
I sure as hell hope Steve Jobs threw in an iPod and a BMW to go with it.
...that the Army is buying.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
oh wait...
Zing.
Simple answer: They are using MACS
No, not Macs as in Macintosh, I'm talking about MACS (Military Acronym Compression Scheme).
See the military uses acronyms for everything, resulting in a higher throughput to the processors. This will allow them to reach the desired 25Tflops.
"Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
Apple should give them X-Plane software as a bundle with this lot - it'll save them having to develop their own simulation! Apparent;y you can use 4 x G5's with X-Plane to yield airline-training quality simulations, so 1566 of them....
What ever happened to the days when our Army would build their own giant evil super computers?
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
thought Apple was a company founded on "principles"...
The negotiation went something like this:
Steve Jobs: No way dude! I'll never work with the military! You're harshing my mellow!
Army: We'll tell everyone that Apple is insanely great, and that you personally are a genius.
Steve Jobs: Well that's OK then. Hypersonic missiles are insanely great too!
Yeah, but then you'd have to wait another year for the Mac version.
Why? Is the Army also going to hire Jonathon Ives to design the look of the hypersonic misiles? That's just great. The iBomb!
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Finally a Grammar Nazi who sure found the proper occasion to post ;-)
but why 1556. It seems like a rather odd number.
... *yoink*
I does look that way, doesn't it? Further inspection, however, reveals that it's actually a rather even number.
Thank you. I'll be here
Apple already invented it.
It was known as the "G4 Cube."
Ba-boom!
Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the fish, I hear it's great.
Better still, image a Beowulf cluster of said bombs.
There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.