Poor Intel, left in the dust! Last week, NASA formally unveiled its Columbia supercomputer cluster, built by Silicon Graphics Inc. using Intel Corp. chips. and designed for a peak speed of more than 50 teraflops.
Just a week later, the crown is taken away. Blue Gene (coincidentally or not, a name of a song by David Bowie) is not even up to full power. Currently it is 65% faster than the Columbia supercomputer cluster (70.72 teraflops), but it is only one quarter of its final size!
...when Blue Gene is completed, its peak processing speed will exceed the Earth Simulator's by a factor of about nine while requiring one-seventh as much electrical power and one-fourteenth the floor space.
IBM comparing their new SuperComputer to Macintosh Cluster! A calculation that would take 30 days on the third-fastest machine on the Top 500 list of supercomputers in 2003 takes three days on Blue Gene, officials said.
None of the top three SuperComputers last year used Intel chips. So what was the third fastest supercomputer in 2003? Why, none other than the Macintosh cluster of 1100 G5's at Virginia Tech. IBM is comparing their latest supercomputer to the Macintosh cluster, and why not? The Mac uses the G5, IBM's own chip, at a cost of only $5.2 million (all the Dell based clusters down the list were $20 to $50 million). This is why Macs costs less, yet are more powerful.
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"There is no creator" - the Dalai Lama. These are words of common sense, and it tells me that "spirituality" has nothing in particular to do with a belief in the supernatural. But then, those of us who grew up in the seventies watching "Kung Fu" already knew that being a vegan, atheist who follows the path of the buddha can reach enlightenment.
All kidding aside, what does a vegetarian atheist have to say? Stick around and you'll find out! Politically I'm rather liberal, but I do like to listen to staunch conservative talk show host Michael (the 'Whiner') Savage so I'll probably be mentioning him from time to time in my weblogs. So for now, how about some talk of broccoli, carrots and peas? Recipe's anyone??
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"As mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality."
- George Washington
"Maybe happiness is a fragment of existence, but with better packaging."
