Still marveling at the accomplishment that is Virginia Tech's "Big Mac" G5-powered supercomputer, despite CNET's feeble attempts to downplay its significance? (Gee, does anyone know if Intel still owns a chunk of CNET? That's a totally unrelated question, of course.) Well, marvel you should, because slapping together the world's third-fastest supercomputer for $5.2 million and the cost of a bunch of pizzas to feed the student volunteers was no small feat-- especially since the whole thing was built in less than three weeks. Geez, it takes us three weeks to find our car keys-- and that's with a map, a compass, and a big flashing neon arrow that says YOUR CAR KEYS ARE RIGHT HERE, STUPID.
So yeah, that Hokie cluster is as worthy an object of lust as any we know, although ever since last week's Stevenote, we've noticed that footage of it makes it look a little... well, Rubenesque is the polite term. And no wonder, really: stick 1,100 operational Power Macs anywhere and they're going to take up some serious space. It's just that we never really noticed before-- but now that we've seen just how little room a pair of 2.0 GHz G5s can occupy, we can't help feeling that "Big Mac" could maybe stand to slim down to a Quarter Pounder or so.
Well, if you're in the mood to swallow a rumor whole, consider "Big Mac" on a diet; an unconfirmed MacRumors Page 2 report cites a Slashdot comment claiming that Virginia Tech gets to trade in its 1,100 Power Macs for an equal number of svelte new Xserves, at no extra charge. If you need a little something extra to choke that rumor down, MacRumors adds that while it's still a "Page 2" item, they've "since received further word" that the swap is a go and "the migration plan was reportedly part of the original Power Mac deal." There's no word on what Apple would do with the 1,100 Power Macs it'd get back from such a transaction, but we hope they wouldn't just get sold as refurbs; they're part of history. We say, eBay 'em.
Now, given that "Big Mac" currently houses those 1,100 G5s in 96 racks, each of which is built to hold 52 standard units, a deft flick of the calculator reveals that 1,100 dual-processor Xserves will take up less than a quarter of the space. If this swap-out really happens, Virginia Tech will have over 74 racks left over; time for another 3,892 Xserves? Surely the university can scrape together another $20 million or so to quadruple its baby's performance scores and knock that snooty Earth Simulator out of the top spot, right?
Tuesday, 1:02 AM: Rumor has it that Hewlett-Packard has pressured Apple into adding WMA support to the iPod-- but consider the source. Meanwhile, the state of Maine discovers the many rewards of unpaid child labor, and unconfirmed reports claim that Virginia Tech gets to trade in its 1,100 Power Macs for an equal number of sleek G5 Xserves...
Other scenes from this episode include:
Just Call Us Chicken Little: Oh, no, the sky is falling! Seriously, it's falling! Big chunks of it are plummeting to earth even as we speak! A jagged slab of blue with some clouds in it just crashed right through the windshield of your car!... Scene
And It Sure Beats AV Duty: Question: how do you provide tech support for 34,000 junior high school kids with notebook computers if you're constrained by limited public funding? Well, if those notebooks are Wintels, you can pay for additional support staff by eliminating certain nonessentials from the school budget-- stuff like textbooks, lab supplies, history classes (hey, the past is the past-- why dwell on it?), heat, and cafeteria substances that qualify technically as "food."... Scene
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Thursday, 5:03 AM: Apple has its best quarter and year in the history of the company-- so of course its stock tanks. Meanwhile, Steve Jobs trots out new iPods that can show video (no, really!), and instead of new pro Macs, Apple introduces the latest iMac G5, complete with an integrated iSight camera and a remote control...
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