Using several new technologies and more than 1,000 dual-processor Power Mac G5 computers, Virginia Tech University is building a supercomputer cluster that is likely to rank among the fastest in the world. In addition to the G5 machines, the university said it is using a beta version of the latest release of OS X, new networking hardware from Mellanox and Cisco, and cutting-edge configuration and cooling technologies to build the powerful cluster for a fraction of the price of a traditional supercomputer.
Could this project have anything to do with Apple's month delay in delivering its new G5 computer systems to those who ordered them just after Steve Jobs announced them? Since this article said, "Aref, who indicated the project is under pressure to submit computing speed numbers by October to be considered among the world's fastest supercomputers...", and since the supercomputing cluster is supposed to use 1100 G5 dual processor computers, that means 2200 of the new G5 2 GHz computer chips, then I suppose that this is a significant impact on the production and delivery the G5 computers for anyone else. Apple, in an email to me, stated that its reason for the month delay was, "Initial units will be sent to education institutions to meet key back to school deadlines." Could Apple be distorting its reason(s) for this delay? In more direct terms, could Apple be lying to it customers?
Unlikely a vast, west coast comspiracy. When I dropped my daughter off at college I saw plenty of iBooks and Powerbooks, some iMacs but no dual-processer Xservs. Not very sexy in the dorm and too expensive. VT would likely be using the rack mounted, 2ghz dual processor models; the 1.6 ghz towers are the first consumer models to ship in 'normal' cases.
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Virginia Tech Building Power Mac G5 Supercomputer
Posted by: Jay Lyman September 3, 2003 10:08 AMUsing several new technologies and more than 1,000 dual-processor Power Mac G5 computers, Virginia Tech University is building a supercomputer cluster that is likely to rank among the fastest in the world. In addition to the G5 machines, the university said it is using a beta version of the latest release of OS X, new networking hardware from Mellanox and Cisco, and cutting-edge configuration and cooling technologies to build the powerful cluster for a fraction of the price of a traditional supercomputer.
Since this article said, "Aref, who indicated the project is under pressure to submit computing speed numbers by October to be considered among the world's fastest supercomputers...", and since the supercomputing cluster is supposed to use 1100 G5 dual processor computers, that means 2200 of the new G5 2 GHz computer chips, then I suppose that this is a significant impact on the production and delivery the G5 computers for anyone else.
Apple, in an email to me, stated that its reason for the month delay was, "Initial units will be sent to education institutions to meet key back to school deadlines."
Could Apple be distorting its reason(s) for this delay? In more direct terms, could Apple be lying to it customers?