I'm note sure what compilers they are using, but the new IBM compilers (particularly xlf) really exploit the G5 well. These compilers are still in beta phase. But even so, on my own 'scientific' code I see 30-50% over gcc.

A Wired story says VT got NO discount for those G5s.
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,61005,00.html

"Varadarajan said Apple provided significant technical help and gave Virginia Tech some of the first G5s off the production line, but the college paid full price for the machines, which cost $3,000 apiece."

I betcha you can get "Extremely F****** Fast User Switching" on that cluster!

A Wired story says VT got NO discount for those G5s.
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,61005,00.html

"Varadarajan said Apple provided significant technical help and gave Virginia Tech some of the first G5s off the production line, but the college paid full price for the machines, which cost $3,000 apiece."

I betcha you can get "Extremely F****** Fast User Switching" on that cluster!

Seems hard to believe they wouldn't get them at the academic discount. The reporting may have screwed up the idea of "no special discount" (but still the "normal" academic pricing) with the retail pricing. How could anyone ordering 1100 systems from a vendor be so foolish as to not negotiate a discount...?

...is that the systems are such a great cost/performance deal that even without a discount they were a much better deal than the competition.

another possibility is that while they may have paid full price for the machines, apple comped them on the typical 3-year extra warranty on parts and labor across the board, etc. lots of vendors make their money on the hardware, and then just comp the service, especially i they know it's not likely to be used enough to be costly.

Who the h*** are you people who take it upon yourselves to critique what macnn reports? I mean, seriously, what do you do all day? Just sit around and b**** about every little way the world would be different if you were running it?

I've noticed that the people who tend to post with such rigid authority on fora like these tend to look and live like "The Comic Book Guy" on the Simpsons.

I'd wager that a good many of them have no more authority in RL than the lead fry cook at McDonald's.

$3000 a piece is a huge discount on a dual with 4GB of RAM. The must be at or below cost!

Check out the wired article entitled "Mac Supercomputer Just Got Faster".

Quote: "Varadarajan said Apple provided significant technical help and gave Virginia Tech some of the first G5s off the production line, but the college paid full price for the machines, which cost $3,000 apiece."

That sales rep must of been happy.

This article is misnamed. VT isn't the World's largest switcher". Optus' switch more than quadruple the size.

Nowehere does it say anything about how they are upgrading to Panther.

I would hazzard to guess it is a "free upgrade" since VT is probably gonna move into the number two spot because of it. I'll laugh if Panther causes a couple hundred machines or more to crash.

"Yes, but each FREE copy of Panther is $19.95 for shipping and handling, and each copy is ONE license to use Panther on ONE machine. That's 1,100 * $19.95."

Think ouside the box will you? Why would Apple send them 1100 copies? They will most likely send them one shipment with 5-10 copies. They only need 1, and the rest would be used as backup copies.

Panther 10.3 still has significant software bugs. Given the mission critical nature of a supercomputer farm. Shouldn't they wait at least 10.3.1 before they move over? Or maybe all the GUI troubles, FW ext disk problems won't affect the operation of their cluster.

They said they'd be moving over in the next couple weeks. For all we know, 10.3.1 wil be out in a couple of weeks.
Personally, I'm hoping 10.3.1 will be out sooner than that. The number and the severity of the bugs in Panther is absolutely staggering!!!!!
I've NEVER had so much go wrong in such a short amount of time on a Mac.

I've been running Panther since late September (b74 - upgraded to b85 in early October - I am a developer with legitimate access to Panther seeds). I've had few problems with it - much fewer than with 10.1, or with Jaguar...

If you have multiple qualifying computers for the up to date program, apple says you only need to buy one copy and ask for a multiple computer license (which I assume is free since the $20 was to cover shipping+handling according to apple)

I just ordered 1,100 Dual G5's from Apple and one Mac Plus off ebay. Time to move down to #4 VT!!!, My super computer is going to be 8 MHz faster than yours!!! See ya LOSERS!!!!

VT should order a 1100/5 = 220 family packs :)