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"Big Mac" not listed among top 10 supercomputers

updated 08:20 am EDT, Mon June 21, 2004

Top 10 supercomputers


"Big Mac", the cluster of 1,100 G5 desktops built by Virginia Polytechnic Institute, was not among the because it was out of service for hardware upgrades, according to IDG News Service: "Two prototype versions of IBM Corp.'s Blue Gene supercomputer have made the top 10 and the authors of the ranking say they expect the final version of the computer to become the No. 1 machine by this time next year or possibly late this year.... Blue Gene will deliver an awesome amount of processing power. The first system will be installed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and is expected by IBM to operate at a peak performance of about 360 teraflops -- or nine times the NEC machine's peak performance of 40T flops."


by MacNN Staff

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  1. z10n

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Oct 2003

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    06/21, 08:56am | report spam | Reply |

    Amazing.

    I'm sure we are all wetting our pants as to why Big Mac wasn't listed in the Top Ten. It's conforting to know that the only reason it didn't get listed was because it was out of service. Since we all know how great macs are and how obvious that the Big Mac should be in the Top Ten.

    If you didn't catch the sarcasm, let me clarify it for you. There is absolutely no point to this story. Congradulations. It takes a lot of work to post something as mindless as this.

  1. denim

    Mac Elite

    Joined: Jun 2000

    0
    06/21, 09:01am | report spam | Reply |

    FPS

    Yeah, but how many frames does it get playing UT 2K4?? Everyone knows that's all that really matters.

  1. hayesk

    Professional Poster

    Joined: Sep 1999

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    06/21, 09:57am | report spam | Reply |

    Re: Amazing

    Did you ever stop to think that maybe that is an interesting bit of news to some? Do you think CNET will report the reason for Big Mac not being on the list? I doubt it. People will wonder why it is no longer there.

    Thanks MacNN for posting this. It is useful, even though it does not cater to z10n's view of what is "mindless" and what is not.

  1. absmiths

    Mac Elite

    Joined: Sep 2000

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    06/21, 10:12am | report spam | Reply |

    Worthless

    The subject is inflamatory. A casual reader might just read that the machine didn't make the cut and not notice it was because it was out for UPGRADES. They also didn't mention what upgrades are being performed, so it sounds like the cluster has broken down already.

    Crappy journalism.

  1. beeble

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2004

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    06/21, 10:27am | report spam | Reply |

    Crappy journalism

    You claim crappy journalism simply one a headline and the use of the term upgrades. What's wrong with you? Didn't get up on the right side of the bed this morning or something?

    Do you really think the average MacNN reader is going to understand the upgrades that VT are doing? Do you think that VT are going to release the details of what they are doing to upgrade their machine especially in light of the fact that the news of the Big Mac's existence didn't leak until it was already nearly complete? Why do you think it has broken down even though you know that the system is having it's G5's replaced with XServes? Does this not imply that they might want to make other changes as well?

    It's only your post that's inflamatory! MacNN aren't the greatest news site in the world but don't accuse them of something they're not.

  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

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    06/21, 10:38am | report spam | Reply |

    Re: crappy journ..

    Do you think that VT are going to release the details of what they are doing to upgrade their machine especially in light of the fact that the news of the Big Mac's existence didn't leak until it was already nearly complete?

    Ummm, I thought EVERYONE knew about Big Mac as it was being constructed. You make it sound like some super-secret installation where no one had a clue until they were already churning out gigaflops (if that were the case, they wouldn't of had students doing the work).

  1. absmiths

    Mac Elite

    Joined: Sep 2000

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    06/21, 12:48pm | report spam | Reply |

    RE Crappy journalism

    That should get the unintelligible post of the week award. I claim crappy journalism because despite your assertion to the contrary MacNN has a history of posting stories with massive grammatical and spelling errors as well as stories with anti-mac bias just to get people steamed.

    The opening line, "'Big Mac', the cluster of 1,100 G5 desktops built by Virginia Polytechnic Institute, was not among the latest top 10 supercomputers because it was out of service" clearly sounds like the cluster was "out of order". They even go on to quote why the IBM machines will be better next year, which had absolutely nothing to do with the opening proposition. That last part about IBM should have at least had a VPI tech saying how much better Big Mac would be after the upgrades (if it will be) or saying that some proprietary piece was being replaced to place the blame somewhere else than on the G5s.

    After all, we need something to counter this headline (linked article):

    "IBM rising, Apple out of latest supercomputer ranking"

    That's even crappier journalism.

  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

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    06/21, 01:14pm | report spam | Reply |

    Re: crappy journ..

    Then why not post your complaints to InfoWorld, who put together the crappy article and crappy headline and all that....

  1. geekstud

    Junior Member

    Joined: Feb 2001

    0
    06/21, 03:25pm | report spam | Reply |

    G5 cluster inprovement?

    Last I heard they were replacing the G5 towers (2 x 2GHz) with G5 Xserves (2 x 2GHz). Now that the 2.5 GHz towers are out (announced, at least), but the updated Xserves haven't been announced (cooling issues?), I wonder if the center missed a chance for an almost 50% drop-in increase in performance...?

  1. bauhaus

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Sep 2003

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    06/22, 06:37am | report spam | Reply |

    Xserves

    The previous Big Mac was c*** and useless. You need ECC ram which G5 PowerMacs don't support. The first BigMac was a pubicity stunt. This newly rebuilt one (whenever Apple delivers, it's been 3 months already!) will actually be functional for work. That's why towers will not be considered for superclusters.

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