"Own a piece of history," announces an ad that appeared on MacMall's homepage recently, accompanied by Virginia Tech's stylized logo. "Buy a Power Mac G5 2GHz [Dual Processor] refurbished by Apple from Virginia Tech's Supercomputer!"...That's pretty neat, but at $2,799, it's still too pricy for me. If anyone is looking to become my mysterious benefactor, however, such a machine would be a great gift.
Virginia Tech's System X was pieced together in 2003 using 1,100 Power Mac G5 2GHz dual processor desktop systems -- some of the first systems off the assembly line, by Apple CEO Steve Jobs' own admission and apology to early adopters during his keynote address at January's Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
System X made waves last November when it was announced that the system placed third on the Top 500 list, a roster of the world's fastest supercomputers. System X cost a fraction of the price of other systems in its class, according to Virginia Tech. It was quite a coup for Virginia Tech and Apple alike, raising the profile of the Power Mac G5 and Apple as an affordable solution for High Performance Computing (HPC).
(Crossposted to
macintosh and macosx.) 