Macs Play Important Role in Particle Collision Experiments

Macs are an important part of particle collision experiments being conducted at the CERN physics laboratory in Geneva, according to an article on Appleis UK Web site. The ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) project is measuring what happens when particles hit each other at close to the speed of light, and a mini cluster of eight Apple Xserve computers are helping with the computations.

Not only that, but the move to Intel means "real opportunities to use the Mac as our main computational engine", ALICE Computing Coordinator Federico Carminati told Apple UK. "Apple is a very nice solution which offers two environments in one system -- UNIX processing power and the world of office applications."

Macs are also in heavy use at CERN, with nearly 1,600 employees using them, including several with MacBook Pro laptops.