[oclug] [OT] supercomputers

[Rod Giffin]

http://www.top500.org/list/2003/11/

The big news in this years top 500 supercomputer list is Virginia Tech
sitting at spot #3 using Macintosh G5 PowerPC's.  The cluster, called
simply X does nothing to satiate my severe case of G5 envy.

Linux is still well represented: in the top 10, Linux is used at least
for 3 of the supercomputers at 4th, 6th and 7th. I'm not entirely sure
what OS is being used by some of the other entries.   But look at #14. 
China?  Now there's a Great Leap Forward.

Canada's entry, an IBM system is #29th.  Not too bad for a bunch of
Kanucks, but we could do better.

There is one thing to note though, about the list.  The Linux based
supercomputers tend to use commodity based PC architecture (some are
based on 64-bit some on 32-bit), and probably cost a lot less to run
than any of the others in their vicinity on the list.  It's one thing to
be blazingly fast, but quite another to not break the bank doing it.

Rod.