First Mac Supercomputer To Be A Cluster Of 1,100 G5s At Virginia Tech

by , 8:00 AM EDT, September 3rd, 2003

Virginia Polytechnic and State University has confirmed that it will use 1,100 dual 2GHz Power Mac G5 machines to form one of the world's most powerful supercomputers. The cluster of G5s will be the first Mac-based system to be listed among the top supercomputers in the world, according to an article at C|Net. The systems will be clustered together with switches from Cisco and Mellanox, and will be cooled by a system from Liebert. From C|Net:

The university, better known as Virginia Tech, said it has been working with the Mac maker for months to set up the massive computer cluster. The dual 2GHz machines started coming off the manufacturing lines last month, the school said.

[...]

Apple notified some customers this week that their dual processor Power Mac G5 machines would be delayed, as the company shifts its priorities to certain educational institutions.

The new cluster is designed to make its way into the rankings of the world's largest supercomputers, a list that currently has no Macs. Virginia Tech will use the cluster to perform research on nanoscale electronics, chemistry, aerodynamics, molecular statics, computational acoustics and molecular modeling, among other tasks. Details of the project were first reported by Mac enthusiast site Think Secret.

You can read the full article at C|Net's Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This is exciting news. 2,200 CPUs working together to form one of the world's most powerful computers, and for once, Apple is providing the power. This is great news for both Apple and Virginia Tech. Soon, not only will the dual 2GHz G5 be the fastest personal computer available, but it will be part of one of the most powerful computers that exists. Assuming that it all works out as planned, this will be a massive endorsement for Apple and the G5 platform.

Note, too, that Apple had some 100,000 pre-orders on the G5, making this order from Virginia Tech more than 1% of those pre-orders. For obvious reasons, it's a higher percentage of the total DP units ordered.

C|Net Article