Microsoft and Cray deliver “mainstream” CX1 supercomputer: starts at $25k

September 16th, 2008 by

Filed under: Desktops

C’mon, who here doesn’t want their very own supercomputer to do, um, whatever they want with? In an effort to make sure every man, woman and child has an absurdly powerful number cruncher in their home (let’s go with OSPP, or One Supercomputer Per Person), Microsoft has tag-teamed with the fabled Cray in order to “drive high productivity computing into the mainstream.” The Cray CX1 Supercomputer comes loaded with Windows HPC Server 2008 and incorporates up to 8 nodes and 16 Intel Xeon CPUs (dual- or quad-core); additionally, it boasts up to 4TB of internal storage, 64GB of memory per node and interoperates nicely with Linux. The CX1 is said to be the most affordable supercomputer offered by Cray (not to mention the “world’s highest-performing computer that uses standard office power”), but it’ll still run you anywhere between $25,000 to well over $60,000. Chump change, right?

[Via NetworkWorld]

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Posted in Microsoft, Intel, supercomputer, server, DARPA, xeon, cluster, cray, Windows HPC, WindowsHpc, Cray CX1, CrayCx1, CX1 | No Comments »

Britain’s new fastest supercomputer makes its ominous debut

January 14th, 2008 by

Filed under: Desktops

It’s always tough to keep track of the fastest supercomputers around at any given moment, but according to Reuters, the rather imposing block of machines pictured above is now at the top of the heap in Britain, and at least near the top in all of Europe. Dubbed HECToR (for High-End Computing Terascale Resource), the Cray-built rig packs the equivalent power of 12,000 desktop PCs, or enough to perform some 63 million calculations per second, which’ll apparently be used to study everything from climate change to new medicines — or, as the researchers responsible for the computer put it, “push forward the boundaries of knowledge.” In related news, Engadget’s Folding@home team is still accepting new members — nudge nudge, British friends.

[Thanks, Matt]

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