Garage sale-ing for a Mac supercomputer

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RE: Vily, start reading before you post

More uneducated dribble...

>ZDNet assumed that it MAY HAPPEN because ?last month Apple announced a G5 version of Xserve, ? which take up less space and consume less power than the Power Macs.?

It's been well documented that VT wanted a smaller form-factor than the G5 towers and once the G5 XServe was announced they immediately worked out a deal with Apple to get them installed to replace the towers.

>Logically it does not make sense to dissemble the fastest (as they claimed) supercomputer...

Who is the 'they' you refer to? VT? Apple? Nope... it's documented by the Top 500 project: http://www.top500.org/list/2003/11/ listed comfortably at number 3 in the world at the top entry for any university.

>If speed was the main point of supercomputer ? then Xserve won?t increase that speed.
>It doesn?t make sense to do it now because Apple promised to reach 3 Ghz barrier this summer.

They never said the move to the XServes was about speed. It was about space and powerconsumption.

>If space would be the main concern of the university ? they would never build this system in the first place.

Who said space was the main concern of the university. It is 'A' concern that is contributing to the move.

>Energy savings? It?s hard to believe that there is a big difference in power consumption between two Dual G5 machines (normally, it should not be). If there is the difference ? there is something wrong with the design of all G5 desktops.

Why is it hard to believe there would be a big difference. The original G5 towers were built off the PPC970 using a 130nm process. The X5s are built off the new PPC970FX using a 90nm process (the same processor is going into the revision b towers.) This means the dye is smaller, produces less heat, and consumes less power than the original 970. This type of move happens all over the semiconductor industry. Beyond all that, remember that server rooms have to be kept nice and cool. It costs a lot to AC those big rooms. If you only have to cool 1/3 of the space, that alone is a massive savings in power consumption, without even toughing the computers.

>Is the university too rich to spend extra money to buy x-amount of G5 Xserve and lose money on garage sale that won?t even make their supercomputer any faster?

You're just not getting the whole speed thing, are you? As far as money, they are likely spending very little over what they already have to make the move to XServes and the power consumption differences in the computers, as well the amount of cooling dollars they won't be spending on 3 times the space can easily make up the difference.

>The university did not comment why they made their decision. The most likely reason of their silence is they are not happy with G5.

The university commented loud and clear why they made the move. And apparently they are happy with G5 as they're not purchasing a new platform.

>Thus, logically the above points mean that the main reason of garage sale is the low performance of G5.

Wow... it's amazing how you can make insane assumptions that wrap it all up into such an off-beat conclusion.

>Can somebody explain why 512 MB ECC SDRAM costs $250 (G5 Xserve) and 512 MB DDR SDRAM also costs $250 (Dual G5)? Can we call it as an example of Apple?s great business model (money before common sense)?

>Can somebody explain why 512 MB ECC SDRAM costs $250 (G5 Xserve) and 512 MB DDR SDRAM also costs $250 (Dual G5)? Can we call it as an example of Apple?s great business model (money before common sense)?

Can someone tell me why a 7200RPM hard drive costs more than 5400RMP hard drive? Why a BMW costs more than a WM? Why Washington apples cost more than Vermont apples? 2 different products, 2 different prices... not so hard to figure out. Besides which, if I were purchasing a new computer from any manufacturer, I would not buy RAM from them. I'll go to Fry's or someother outlet to purchase RAM to install myself, and I'll save a few pennies along the way.

Posted by: JakAttak   Posted on: 02/13/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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