Just think: barely ten months ago, there was no such thing as a Mac-based supercomputer (Apple's old G4 marketing claims notwithstanding), and none but a select few übergeeks at Virginia Tech had even detected the approach of a vague blobby thing on the Mac Supercomputer Radar Screen. And yet, a month later said geeks had built one; a month after that the cluster was ranked the third-fastest supercomputer on the planet. As a result, just a couple of weeks ago the U.S. Army commissioned an even larger G5 cluster-- and once there are two, who knows how quickly they'll spawn?

Well, Apple, at least, seems to think that the offspring will come fast and furious; faithful viewer Mike Scherer noted a Macworld UK article which reports that Apple's director of server and storage hardware happened to mention at the Worldwide Developers Conference last week that the company "anticipates a number of large clusters to be built" and that "an impressive 40 per cent of Xserve sales are destined for use in such clusters-- particularly in universities."

Two out of every five Xserves going into clusters? That's sort of good news, we guess-- it depends on whether you'd consider the fact that Apple's hey-let-us-into-the-enterprise-market-please-please-please server product is only marginally more popular as a server than as a cluster node. Also, the "forty percent" thing is only good news if there are lots more clusters coming than we know about; otherwise that stat would indicate that Apple has sold only about 4,500 Xserve G5s on the whole and that Xserves are therefore selling about as well as lifejackets in the Sahara.

But not to worry, because Apple was apparently correct about little clusterlings joining the happy family before long: though Virginia Tech's cluster is offline pending upgrades and the Army's cluster hasn't even been built yet, the two of them still managed to procreate somehow. Think Secret reports that a baby cluster of 256 Xserves is already under construction at UCLA's Plasma Physics Lab. If the performance of this "Dawson Project" scales linearly with that of Big Momma "Big Mac," it might even rank in the top 60 or 70 supercomputers when it's up and running-- a feat made all the more impressive by Dawson's sticker price: a cool million smackers. That's right, just one of them. Sheesh, talk about your bargain basement supervalues. You can hardly even get a case of Fanta for that price anymore.

As their first-born, Dawson will no doubt always hold a special place in its parents' hearts, but if Apple has anything to say about the situation, before long Dawson will have plenty of younger siblings to keep it company. Want your own G5 cluster popping up soon in your backyard? Try dimming the lights out back and piping a little Barry White out there. We bet you won't be waiting long...