View Full Version : Ultra-Portable Supercomputer for $2470USD
Baron
09-02-2007, 11:39 AM
http://www.techpowerup.com/?38883
These days, it seems as though computers come in two flavors: small and quiet, or big and powerful. However, a team from Calvin College recently broke all stereotypes by building a $2500 supercomputer inside what looks like a normal PC case. Containing four motherboards (and four dual core processors) connected by an eight-port switch, the supercomputer "Microwulf" can process an impressive 26.25 gigaflops every second. Microwulf is small enough to carry on board an airplane as carry-on luggage.
See here
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/microwulf.htm
and here for pics
http://www.calvin.edu/~adams/research/microwulf/
edit------
The specs.
http://www.calvin.edu/~adams/research/microwulf/budget/
Fraggle
09-02-2007, 11:57 AM
Am I missing something? Just eight cores?
Baron
09-02-2007, 12:04 PM
Just found their most recent price list for August.
http://www.clustermonkey.net//content/view/211/1/1/2/
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r198/Frollkiller/1255USDsupercomputer.jpg
FghtinIrshNvrDi
09-02-2007, 12:11 PM
the goal was to keep cost down. They could have done quads, but it seemed to me like they were going for bang/buck in addition to meeting thie price point of $2500.
Ryan
Spawne32
09-02-2007, 12:20 PM
the goal was to keep cost down. They could have done quads, but it seemed to me like they were going for bang/buck in addition to meeting thie price point of $2500.
Ryan
Cant really call it a super computer then now can you?
Fraggle
09-02-2007, 12:25 PM
Surely dual Clovers would stomp it AND be smaller and neater?
dieqast
09-02-2007, 12:28 PM
Me want 4x Skulltrail with 8 Yorkfields, 16 G92's (hacked quad-SLI), 16 sticks 2GB D9GMH's and 8 Raptor 150's in RAID 0. Then we'll see some supercomputer for yaa. And don't forget the nuclear powerplant with that.
SOLDNER-MOFO64
09-02-2007, 12:30 PM
Cant really call it a super computer then now can you?
Define super?
In contrast to computers of yesteryear it's more than a supercomputer.
Everything is relative :)
Thallid
09-02-2007, 12:32 PM
Hmm, why not just a pair of Q6600s instead of four X2 3800+?
perry_78
09-02-2007, 12:33 PM
Me want 4x Skulltrail with 8 Yorkfields, 16 G92's (hacked quad-SLI), 16 sticks 2GB D9GMH's and 8 Raptor 150's in RAID 0. Then we'll see some supercomputer for yaa. And don't forget the nuclear powerplant with that.
Nah, not raptors. You want a good SCSI array.. :)
dieqast
09-02-2007, 12:39 PM
Nah, not raptors. You want a good SCSI array.. :)
True.Some Cheetahs maybe
You forgot 4 Dragonpots, 16 GFX LN2-pots and a LN2 processing lab
And we'll RAID soundcards to make it BOOMBOOMBOOM like the Vengaboys.
perry_78
09-02-2007, 12:53 PM
The dragonpots might be overkill don't you think? :)
dieqast
09-02-2007, 12:58 PM
The dragonpots might be overkill don't you think? :)
Nahhh did I say 4? I meant 8 :rofl:
Edit: Maybe we'll go for liquid helium anyways
Nahhh did I say 4? I meant 8 :rofl:
Edit: Maybe we'll go for liquid helium anyways
yeah you go and do that, then realise that the system wont even boot with liquid helium.
Kunaak
09-02-2007, 03:01 PM
what I dont get, is how do they run 4 computers, from 1 hard drive?
I've never seent that before.
that would be kinda interesting to experiment with.
Kunaak
09-02-2007, 03:06 PM
also, I can think of a few ways they could have made alot more power from that amount of space.
pico boards are about 1/3rd the size of those boards, and can be filled up with conroes and such, and DDR2. PSU's for pico boards are only about the size of a pack of gum, and are only 150 watts each, if that.
they could fit about 10 pico boards, in the same amount of space, they used for those 4 matx boards.
assuming they wanted super computers, and super small I mean...
of course, going pico, would cost alot more, since your buying alot more hardware... but you could have made a much much more powerful set up, in that same amount of space, using pico stuff.
Spawne32
09-02-2007, 03:29 PM
What confuses me the most is the 4 AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ cpus, and then using the word "supercomputer"
Spawne32
09-02-2007, 03:30 PM
speaking of that, i think you guys here at XS should build your own supercomputer, and lets do it the right way this time ;)
Kayin
09-02-2007, 03:45 PM
You know, for the money, I think they did damn well. It'll take your quads to the floor ON THE APPS IT IS MEANT TO DO (e.g., those written for clustered computers, mostly scientific apps) but in our stuff, it won't even run our benches. You also forget, if a few people brought theirs from home, they'd seamlessly integrate toether for even more nodes and more power. It's kinda like Power Rangers for computers...
If you wanted more power in a desktop case, take a K5FND-SLi, fill it full of RAM, drop in a pair of top-of-the-line Opties, and a pair of Tesla cards from nVidia. Run it off the onboard video. Floating point beast, able to process almost anything, and can fit in a PC-60. Would have said quads, but I can't find a board that fit's a standard ATX case, even with some modding. They also don't have SLi for the Tesla cards.
iddqd
09-02-2007, 03:56 PM
what I dont get, is how do they run 4 computers, from 1 hard drive?
I've never seent that before.
that would be kinda interesting to experiment with.
network boot, i imagine.
Entity_Razer
09-03-2007, 05:39 AM
what I dont get, is how do they run 4 computers, from 1 hard drive?
I've never seent that before.
that would be kinda interesting to experiment with.
A special OS designed to run clusters.
Would be cool if you'd be able to run Normal Windows on this thing and/or normal Linux ....
Must... resist.... urge.... to ... spend.... money.....
lookmomnobrains
09-03-2007, 08:36 AM
... would love to see that setup whit somting like 4 * e4400 and some uATX mb.. whit 2 stiks of ddr2 ea...
that will cost about 240 euro more.. but then agen it should make up for that money in performens and will be smaller
onewingedangel
09-03-2007, 10:38 AM
I wouldn't call that a supercomputer - I always imagine supercomputers being at least two orders of magnitude faster than the 'typical' desktop computer, wheras you can get 1u blade systems faster than this.
NapalmV5
09-03-2007, 06:32 PM
what I dont get, is how do they run 4 computers, from 1 hard drive?
I've never seent that before.
that would be kinda interesting to experiment with.
A special OS designed to run clusters.
Would be cool if you'd be able to run Normal Windows on this thing and/or normal Linux ....
Must... resist.... urge.... to ... spend.... money.....
rocks cluster (http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=rockscluster) ?