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Photos: IBM's Blue Gene/L

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Photo credit: IBM

Sixteen racks of IBM's Blue Gene/L supercomputer can perform 70.7 trillion calculations per second, making it the fastest machine known so far. It's installed at a research facility in Rochester, Minn., will be moved to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore Calif.

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kind of ugly looking: id light some sleek stuff with night blue lights :P
Posted by volterwd (466 comments ): November 5, 2004 10:14 PM (PST) Like Reply Link Flag

4 heaps with 16 racks altogether with and 16 bays in each rack.: 4 heaps with 4 racks in each heap making 16 racks altogether, with 16 bays in each rack making a 16 by 16 or 256 supercomputer.
Posted by (2 comments ): November 7, 2004 8:19 AM (PST) Like Reply Link Flag

IBM/Apple G5 Xserve is sweet!: Yeah, this looks kind of clunky & wired together considering it's
IBM. IBM/Apple G5 Xserve is much more clean, high tech &
modular.
check out www.apple.com/xserve

But, all in all, IBM still rocks!
-Eyes wide open in Seattle-
Posted by (71 comments ): November 7, 2004 9:45 AM (PST) Like Reply Link Flag

What about server blades?: I hear so much about the annoying server blades on tv. If they are so great why dont they use them then?

KM
Posted by kieranmullen (862 comments ): November 7, 2004 10:04 PM (PST) Like Reply Link Flag

IBM Cabling: You would think such an important computer system, would have better cabling. Note the differences from rack to rack.
Posted by (1 comment ): November 8, 2004 1:15 PM (PST) Like Reply Link Flag

What cabling differences do you see?

BlueGene/L cabling is not completely symmetric - is that what you see as differences? I see a cable or two flagged (tagged) for some reason; that's normal in a laboratory environment prior to shipment to a customer site. The black, blue, white cables each have different purposes, and the black cables are color coded depending on specific use. I can see some of the red color bands in the second picture, at the centerpoint of the closest rack.

Posted by (1 comment )

November 9, 2004 2:29 PM (PST) Like Reply Link Flag

Oooo Oooo I know?: The black cables are inter-node and the blue cables pull data from storage they are tagged with the storage array location to which they are attached.
Posted by (5 comments ): December 14, 2004 4:34 AM (PST) Like Link Flag

cool...: Could I use it when you guys are done? I have a level in Doom 3 I cant get past cause my computer keeps getting jittery and I get killed everytime. Let me know...Peace
Posted by baggyguy1218 (156 comments ): December 25, 2004 5:45 AM (PST) Like Reply Link Flag

: Come on I.B.M.
Get on the horn and start mapping out the 8 piece tablebases for chess :D
Man id love to analyze some chess positions on that thing.
Posted by DionMarinos (1 comment ): May 19, 2009 1:01 PM (PDT) Like Reply Link Flag

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CONTINUED: Sixteen racks of IBM's Blue Gene/L supercomputer can perform 70.7 trillion calculations per second.…
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Photos: IBM's Blue Gene/L

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