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Army Contractor To Build A 1566 Xserve Cluster

Posted by timothy on from the army-of-a-quite-a-bunch-actually dept.

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.

20 of 465 comments (clear)

  1. Only $5.8 Million? I Want One by powera · · Score: 4, Funny
    Screw atmospheric calculations or modeling atmospheric flight. I want to see the frame rate for Duke Nukem Forever on that one.

    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.

  2. This just might meet the system requirements... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    for America's Army!

  3. costs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sure the computers only costs $5.8 million, but how much will the screwdrivers cost they use to install everything?

  4. Re:Why the Army? by gl4ss · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  5. Awesome! by wiresquire · · Score: 4, Funny

    1566 X Server cluster? That should get some decent FPS.

    Ohhhh. XServe. My bad.

    --

    So does Anonymous Coward have good karma?

  6. Torn between... by jabex · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
    1. Re:Torn between... by cosmo7 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Anyway, almost every one of them has a Stgw 90 at home, no SIG or whatever you call it. It was developed by the swiss army.

      It's the world's first assault rifle with a built-in corkscrew.

  7. Another misspell by mattbot+5000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Army Contractor To Build A 1566 Xserve Cluster You totally misspelled "1337."

  8. That'll be a damn pretty thermodynamic simulator by SilentChris · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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

  9. That's about 9 terahertz by BandwidthHog · · Score: 3, Funny

    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?
  10. Re:Why the Army? by andreMA · · Score: 3, Funny
    SAC-Peace is our profession (war is our trade).
    I was stationed at HQ SAC (Offutt AFB) in the early 80's and we always said:
    • "Peace is our profession... war is just a hobby.
  11. Think different? by psyconaut · · Score: 4, Funny

    Kinda hard when you're in the army ;-)

    -psy

  12. Re:Why the Army? by DAldredge · · Score: 3, Funny

    Not yet, but they will ;->

  13. Re:Only $5.8 Million? I Want One by lewp · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think I could have made Duke Nukem Forever by now. No need for a supercomputer.

    --
    Game... blouses.
  14. 3132 processors by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...But only one mouse button.

    I sure as hell hope Steve Jobs threw in an iPod and a BMW to go with it. :P

  15. Netcraft Confirms... by Aardpig · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...that the Army is buying.

    --
    Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
  16. Re:I don't follow the numbers by ThatsNotFunny · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
  17. Re:Why the Army? by sql*kitten · · Score: 4, Funny

    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!

  18. Re:Only $5.8 Million? I Want One by M.+Baranczak · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, but then you'd have to wait another year for the Mac version.

  19. Re:Why the Army? by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.