Pictures of the G5 cluster super computer

**Gordy** · 21-09-2003, 02:02 PM

http://www.macminute.com/2003/09/20/g5cluster

Look at all those g5's

**Stoo** · 21-09-2003, 02:13 PM

Eeeeek, that's a lot of G5's.. I wonder if one or two went missing during the install lol

**Gordy** · 21-09-2003, 02:19 PM

I would have tried

**Stoo** · 21-09-2003, 02:45 PM

LOL, wouldn't blame you

**sputnik found** · 21-09-2003, 10:41 PM

very nice. I need one for Uni next yr!

We have just got 10 in at college (1.6 Verisons) and they rock.

**Jonny M** · 21-09-2003, 10:52 PM

Hardly an efficient use of rack space though

**Butuz** · 24-09-2003, 11:27 PM

Heh bit of a waste of space. Ill wager youd get at east double the raw cpu power in total by filling each one of those 48u racks with 48 dual 2ghz operton 1u rack boxen.

Still, some peeps just like to demonstrate how to waste vast amounts of money making their racks silver clad i suppose

Butuz

**Gordy** · 24-09-2003, 11:35 PM

I would argue it may not be an efficient use of space but in moneytry terms prehaps that it is? I would imagine they got a hefty discount and they are ready to go

**Butuz** · 24-09-2003, 11:56 PM

Originally posted by Gordy
I would argue it may not be an efficient use of space but in moneytry terms prehaps that it is? I would imagine they got a hefty discount and they are ready to go

I wouldnt be so sure. Think about it, 1100 Powermac G5's) i am assuming that by the above they mean 1100 powermac G5 CPU's), so thats 550 Actual Dual G5 boxes.

At 18 CPU's per 48u rack, that means they have 30-31 48u cabs full of mac's.

Now, think 1U Dual operon server's. 48 dual Opteron server's per rack (lets say 46 average incase they have some other stuff in there)

thats 46x2cpu's which is 92 CPU's per rack cab.

92 cpu's x 30 rack cabs = 2760 opteron CPU's in the same space.

Now, As proven in review's you highlighted Dual 2Ghz G5's are faster than dual 3ghz xeons. However dual 2ghz opterons are also faster than dual 3 ghz xeons, so lets assume (theres lots of asumptions in this rough calucation btw) that the mac = opetron as far as power/mhz goes.

using opterons - for the same amout of space you have 2.5x the raw power. Do you think you would be able to negotiate any less of a discount on 1380 dual opteron boxes than you would on 550 dual g5 boxes?

At the end of the day that uni wasted tens of thousands of quid/dollars having some cool looking rack's for some cool looking photos. Thats why and i quote "Update: The photos have been removed without explanation. MacMinute was able to save a few of the images (which can be found here) before they were taken down." Was the uni embarrased that theyve taken pretty photo's of rack fulls of huge money wastage?

(if the above doesnt make sense, or if its mathematically incorrect, i dont care, its nearly 12am and ive been on the WifeBeater all evening)

Butuz

**pickers** · 25-09-2003, 01:22 PM

Wow I'm impressed, been on the wifebeater all evening and you can still see let alone type

With regards your maths it seems pretty much spot on, though I'm willing to wager that the Opeterons are faster than the G5s, just check out the SPEC results that both manufacturers quote. So I must agree with Butuz that it is cetainly a cool looking cluster, but a huge waste of space and money.

**Gordy** · 25-09-2003, 01:27 PM

I think the uni took them down as they were slashdottted

U seem to think that space is an issue to them clearly it wasn't to them. They had plenty enough. If you were wanting an efficient setup in terms of space you would be right but this clearly wasnt the case here.

There are 1100 g5's in the macs that 1100 dual processor g5's I think.

I would love to compare the price of a similiar specd opteron to compare the two but I dunno who does them at the mo?

**Joel** · 26-09-2003, 10:32 PM

thats one hell of a system...

**Gordy** · 14-10-2003, 02:10 PM

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12100

Me thinks I was right on the price issue

**Moby-Dick** · 14-10-2003, 02:14 PM

I take it the building was UPS'd then ?

normally in a rack you'd have a couple of u just for the UPS
if you where trying to run 40 boxes in a rack you'd need a very large UPS

**headbrace** · 14-10-2003, 05:18 PM

this rackmount system was responsible for the delay in shipping the g5s worldwide.

**Gordy** · 14-10-2003, 11:14 PM

There has been a correction on the 38 million figure it was a mere 3million as the rest went on things unrelated to the superpooter such as a new department

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12114

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