Virginia Tech's decision to replace its "Big Mac" supercomputer processors with Apple Computer Xserve G5 servers will make the installation more attractive to the federal agencies and organizations negotiating with the university for its novel supercomputer technology.
A Virginia Tech spokesperson said the university and Apple Computer have received "a number of inquiries" from federal agencies to use the university's installation or its supercomputer-kit technology to build their own supercomputer installations. The key proprietary piece of the installation--recently ranked the third most powerful supercomputer in the world--is its fault-tolerant software environment called Dj Vu.
The software and the supercomputer design are the brainchild of Srinidhi Varadarajan, assistant professor of computer science. When he first went to Apple with his plan to link 1100 G5s, the company was so incredulous that Virginia Tech had to send a team to Apple headquarters, in Cupertino, to convince company executives that the plan was serious.
The installation has been up and running for a few months, but the swapping of G5s for Xserve servers will shrink the size of the installation. "We'll cut the space used by a factor of three," said Lynn Nystrom, university spokesperson. "We'll go from 3,000 square feet to 1,000 square feet."
She said the existing system has performed well, but it will be dismantled soon. As for the existing G5's, she said they will all be used somewhere, "They will all find a happy home."
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