Cray, Intel, and Microsoft birth baby supercomputer

Barely a "super-computer"

nuff said.

I predict...

...lots of Vista jokes. Or not.

Anyway, I thought users of supercomputing apps usually had a clue about computers and technical stuff like that. In other words, not your typical Windows users. Using graphical stuff just to "make it easier" sounds kind of paradoxical here... Sounds like a cool piece of kit (fans whirring like crazy and all that) though.

Cray have gone Windows all the way...

You can't even window-shop without IE... (try customising a purchase)

That really takes the piss. A formerly high-end computer manufacturer no longer allowing *nix using people to buy from them....

At last!

A machine with the power to run Vi$ta!

I any case, the thought of a machine with a thundering herd of Windows running inside is enough to cause a BOFH to blanch.

Oooh no, Mr Bill!

This will of course attract the Point n' Click Brigade (TM)

... [click here]

No pain, no gain, no brain...

Windows for W*nk*Rs

MCSEies to the fore!

If only Switzerland would sue the M$ for infringing on the "How many holes can a cheese possibly have?" concept.

- Paris, who naturally trumps Swiss Cheese.

Will it...

run quake/doom/crysis.

The key metric I want to know is how quickly will ffmpeg transcode a DVD into Xvid!

Cray grasping at straws

Cray should speak to SGI about how successful an anti-Linux/Unix strategy in partnership with Microsoft can be! Note to cray: an inability to compete with the likes of HP and IBM in the HPC space will NOT be resolved by offering sub-par products with Microsoft. You need to get your asses in gear and start offering Linux based products that people want to buy for more than just your brand name.

The CX1 Office Toaster

Yeh, right, that many high performance cores in the office behind the desk. How many amps is your local office wall socket rated for again?? I can see health and safety guys getting all over this as the boffins in the corner crank up the AC and start fires. The IT security guys will have a fit too.

We've spent too long getting IT away from the office floor and into the Data Center where it belongs. If this catches on a await the inevitable headlines once one is melted/hacked/stolen/flooded with a cuppa!

That's a cute icon for this story

Any chance of getting it in higher-res?

Cray, Intel and Microssoft entry-level supercomputer

Leaving aside the contradiction in terms of a "desk-side supercomputer", Cray is trying to do the right thing for the right reasons with the Cray CX1. The world can only be a better place if more people are conversant with what HPC can help them do. Making it easier for scientists and professionals to use HPC is the real HPC challenge of this decade - that's why Microsoft's initiatives are so important. Cray's challenge is making a business model that works for it as well as for its new friends. Cray has a lot of experience in what not to do in entry-level HPC - it's been totally unsuccessful in the shark pool with Dell, HP, etc with entry-level products, most recently the XD1. And whilst struggling in the shark pool Cray needs to make sure that the CX1doesn't become another distraction from its core mission which is of course making real supercomputers.

Fools

Windows "mini-super" computers on the tarwub soon? I see a whole lot of petaflops busy sending spam...

Scientists are not gonna buy into that (for the ones who need that kind of computer power also know how to get it -and know better than wasting all theses precious CPU cycles on Windows). They might buy the barebone version though. From what I read, it looks like pretty good value for money. For the price of a workstation, you get a bit less, but a bit more (a bit less in the software department, but a bit more in the hardware department... sounds like a very, very good deal when you just want to crunch numbers).

My opinion, though, is that the real core target for the fully loaded thing is CGI fiddlers, designers, and, of course, yoof-targetting startups with more money than brain. In short, people who will think they can now get a (semi) super-computer all by themselves, no scary IT geek needed (lab geeks -sorry, scientists- are not afraid of IT geeks. They've even been able to breed in some occasions. Reportedly). And my bet is that they're in for a nasty surprise (and, incidentally, so are we, I for one welcome our super-botnet overlords).

I can rant all I want, I know that I'll happily get me a fully functional one. 5 years from now. In a dumpster. Happy in advance.

Snr Sysadmin

A couple of comments here.

1) 486 using 240V (AC). Back home in Australia 240V is the standard.I still have a 386 & a 486 (in storage) that run on 240V. I moved to North America and was stunned to see special 240V runs were put in for "big iron". hahaha :)

2) There are reasons servers are put in server rooms: power consumption, temperature, security, etc.

Leaving a $25-80,000 server outside a server room is a pretty bad plan. It is at far too much risk of theft, damage, etc.

Just because it runs on 110V or whatever doesn't mean the desk has enough power points or that the local circuit can take the current demand. Did these guys even think this through?

@Mr. Nobody re: 240 Volts

> Cool! I guess it's the extra 10 volts that make those data centres so very expensive.

Assuming you're in the UK ...

Have you actually measured your mains supply recently? Do you really believe that the grid operators went out and replaced all their expensive step-down transformers overnight when the spec for the mains voltage was changed from 240V +/-5% to 230V +/-10% to "harmonise" with most of the rest of Europe, who also changed from their former 220V +/-5% to 230V +/-10%. No, I thought not.

What actually happened was ... nothing.

240V +5% is 252V, which is less than 230V +10% (253V). Similarly, 220V -5% is 209V, which is greater than 230V -10% (207V). So the whole of the ranges permitted under the two previous standards fits neatly into the single range of the shiny new EU harmonised standard and nobody has to do anything. Magic, innit?

Of course, now somebody will prove me wrong and show that new substations actually do generate a nominal 230V, but I doubt it. The power distribution companies probably use the extra range to permit a substation to supply a wider area, since the power drop between substation and consumer is proportional to the length of the cables.

Interesting that here in Germany lightbulbs seem to last a lot longer than they did back in Blighty. http://members.misty.com/don/bulb1.html#mll

"It looks like...

...you're trying to run a nuclear reactor simulation. Would you like some help with that?"

Paris, because it's the sort of thing she'd think of.

Go, Reg, Go ......... We didn't get where we are today by..:-).

"Technically, this desk-side mega-server is certified to run Linux distros from RedHat and Novell. But they weren't invited to launch party." .... http://www.theregister.co.uk/

Is that El Reg putting ITs desk-side mega-server, the Register, into the IntelAIgents Circle for some MaJIC Siamese Surprise in Shanghai Rain and Novel WAIs? What an Absolutely Fab Idea/Step/Quantum Leap.

"In short, people who will think they can now get a (semi) super-computer all by themselves, no scary IT geek needed (lab geeks -sorry, scientists- are not afraid of IT geeks. They've even been able to breed in some occasions. Reportedly). And my bet is that they're in for a nasty surprise (and, incidentally, so are we, I for one welcome our super-botnet overlords)."

What Sort of Beings bet on Nasty Surprises? Beings with Zero Positive Input ? Share a Few Lines of Encouragement 42 Change the World is Pretty Simple for CompleXXXX Situations/Environments.

And after 10 days computing ....

... You get a comment to the effect "Windows has downloaded a critical upgrade and needs to reboot now".

That's what happened to me, I lost a huge simulation run, and the next day I rceompiled the whole lot under Linux and have never looked back.

Microsoft? What a charade they are.

240 volts

must be getting old in my day big iron ran 415V three phase

Baby supercomputer?

Nah, surely it's a minicomputer?

I feel old.

Wall sockets at 120V?

Damn you Thomas Alva Edison!

Although can I see business sense in this ...

... there is also a contradiction. For one, Windows kernel is not efficient enough for HPC - there will be too much locking and synchronization cost (in API calls, especially IO) to allow user threads to do any real work on dozens of cores available, concurrently . Of course, they MIGHT have fixed that in Windows 2008 HPC edition (or what Microsoft calls it). Even if they did, there is a question of security - one does not buy fastest machine possible, paying 6-figure bill, just to cripple it with antivirus. On the other hand, one does not run Windows WITHOUT antivirus. Unless it is on private and well-secured network. Which of course makes sense in the datacenter, but under the desk ... ?

Re: That's a cute icon for this story

While cute, it is just a bit overlyoptimistic. It should be:

10 Goo

20 Agiii

30 Whaaaaaaaaaa

40 Goto 10 : REM Colics, wet nappy and so on.

Actually, I forgot, it is a Microsoft HPC so there is one extra line:

25 Barf : REM "Projectile Vomit" again, system rebooted

Why it's called HPC now.

Try walking into the boardroom and telling the suits you want to buy a supercomputer. To them, seeing as they lag about 20 years in IT knowledge, a supercomputer conjures up an image of a warehouse-sized datacenter packed with rows and rows of cabinets all running in one massive and very expensive proprietary system, with very little flexibility and poor re-use. Now, try going to the same suits and saying you want to save on the new project budget by taking advantage of "free software" (Linux) and x86 servers in an HPC cluster - same thing, different description, but even the ones that spend most of their lives "dining at the club" have read nice things about Linux and HPC and associate the whole shebang with the words "small" and "cheap", which really appeal to them as they think they're winners with the shareholders. Then say you would also like to look at a Windows option using the same kit. The same suits also see Windows as meaning "safe at only slightly more cost", so Windows and HPC to them will sound just fine.

Microsoft + HPC, not

I think that the description of this machine is what referred to as a Minicomputer... more powerful than a Microcomputer (PC) but not a "Mainframe" as super computers of old were thought of... The name they have come up with is a marketing term.

Microsoft's problem is not that nobody in the realm of supercomputing won't talk to them. It is that Microsoft's best efforts aren't good enough. Perhaps this is what is needed to run Vista... joking.

Really, Given the product as hardware, Linux will run quite well on it. It may well fit in a niche market... and once Cray figures out that Microsoft is just using them and that the real future is Linux, well, there it is...

I suspect that the BSOD on this must look like a train wreck... joking, but if you had 80 K to purchase a Minicomputer, would you risk it running "Windows".

Cray must be desperate.

Were did the dead bird go, that fits perfectly for this story.

blink

I stare in disbelief. Why would one want to waste half of the systems resources to run some Windows? *g* Nonono, if I wanted a supercomputer with clickety interface, I'd rather have a cluster made of Xserves. Should be cheaper too, and as folks mentioned, in real life you would not want to operate this under your desk anyway.

240 volts

You can actually run a PC just fine from 240 volts DC. If you look inside the tin box which keeps all the nasty voltages safely out of harm's way and lets out only the nice safe voltages, you'll find the first thing that the mains encounters is a rectifier.

And yes, you could run your PC from 200 D cells in series (200 * 1.2 = 240). Some fool probably has already tried this.

MS in our HPC?? What a joke!!

Oh my word, I had a laugh at this one. I think if I suggested putting MS on anything in our HPC facility my colleagues would cart me off in a white coat.

For people unfamiliar with Linux - learn how to use a computer!

Time savings?

Windows on a super computer? So will the extra performance be eaten up by the time required to reboot a rack full of blades and get them talking to each other again? How many teraflops will the AV software use?

@Stuart Van Onselen

Do not bet on CG artists knowing how to use Windows. Last time artists had the Unix boxes replaced with Windows productivity plummeted and complains soared until they upgraded to Unix again.

WTF?

Windows is pretty ridiculous for a processing cluster, the whole premise of windows was that it's a gui (hence the name)... It requires a videocard to boot, and will not support a serial console...

Why would you want all that extra hardware in your cluster nodes? Boot everything headless, redirect the console over a serial connection for debugging...

Also being closed source, you can't tune the software to your individual needs.

Also the costs, once you have a large cluster you want each node to be as cheap and power efficient as possible - so you can afford more nodes... You don't want to waste money on software for each node, and you don't want surplus hardware that you had to pay for, and which will consume power which you also have to pay for, and produce heat which you have to pay to get rid of...

You want each node to be diskless and network boot, have as much ram and cpu cores as is optimal for your workload, have whatever interconnect is necessary and nothing else. No video hardware, no onboard sound, no usb, no ps/2, nothing that will waste power.

Just look at the current market leader in the top500 supercomputers list - IBM.

Re: The CX1 Office Toaster

The specs say each CX1 box has up to two (or four for redundancy) 1.6kW PSUs. Yes that's going to be one toasty office!

I'll only buy one...

...if it has chrome trim and neon blue undercarriage lighting.

Sansense

"The personal supercomputer is not a new idea, but this is the first time that Cray is trying it out in the market."

Wrong. Search google for "Cray YMP-EL92".

Another very sad story illustrating how Cray has gone downhill in recent years. Wintel box shifing!

Mine's the one with "I coded for Crays, and all I got was this stinking lab coat" on the back.

Beancounter heaven

They will all want one to run their ridiculously complex excel spreadsheets on. That way they don't get laughed at when they ask the Geeks if they can make it better only to be told their accounts database app should do that for them (If they hadn't bought it on purchase price and give away shiny things).

Of course they could get an app written but the tied in Accounts app vendor wants a million Pound for ten minutes work and anyway they would have to specify what it the spreadsheet does and that would mean admitting to all the fudges and bodges they use to the get the bottom line to say what they want.

SO... The crap that you have written yourself in excel visual basic might be able to return an answer in less than 5 days just by spending $25,000 or so. No Geeks. No questions about the crappy accounts system you recommended. No questions about the various 'suspense account journals' around 'training weekend' expenses.

At least that's what Microsoft and Cray hope.

So sad

I used to love Cray and SGI when they really did cool stuff. (They used to be siamese twins for a while until some surgery. )

I mean, they used to make computers with octagonal bench setas around the outside. They looked like something off Space 1999 and that's what you wanted if you'd spent a bundle on kit.

This sort of stuff is OK if you want to crunch some numbers/render some graphics *relatively* quickly and without requiring proper expertise, but Win HPC and a fairly small number of cores means it's pretty limited. And to get some grunt you have to put 3 chassis together. You're going to stick that behind your desk??

I yearn for the days when the engineering in these things was first rate and you got what you paid for. Even after my SGI Challenge boxes were overtaken in speed by laptops, you could turn it into a cool-arse fridge. http://home.planet.nl/~mourits/koelkast/

For a bit of grunt in a box, I'd rather go for the IBM blade chassis S. Then I can choose what to do by way of OS. It's got wheels too.

Fetch me coat, I'm orf.

@Scott Re: The CX1 Office Toaster

"The specs say each CX1 box has up to two (or four for redundancy) 1.6kW PSUs. Yes that's going to be one toasty office!"

Not for long, the average US office outlet is on a 15A, 120V circuit, which can only be loaded to 80% -- 1440W.

It'll be way cheaper to stack a few short rackmount dual quadcore servers and stick a "Vista Ready" logo on it, then place a script on a cheap desktop to copy the job parameters to the "HPC cluster". The user will never know/care what OS the cluster is using.

Oh--if it's not on a raised floor and occupying an entire wing of a building, like a 1108 3x2, it's not "big iron".

netgeek

@240 volts By A J Stiles

believe you have uprate the diodes or bypass them.

@Adrian

And after 10 days computing ....

Please back away from the computer, it is a big shiney device that is to technical for you. Learn to use a toaster first.

Hint: Turn off automatic updates!

Doomed to fail

This product is too noisy, and produces too much heat for anything but a machine room. Note the suspicious lack of environmental specifications. It is more expensive and less capable than similarly configured Nexxus boxes.

It will go the way of Rocketcalc (doing this kind of thing almost a decade ago), Orion Multisystems, and SciCortex. (OK, I guess SciCortex's little machine is still around.)

Stick with two-socket SMP for desktop use. Bigger machines belong in the machine room.

Monte Carlo

This kind of box is great for monte-carlo simulation of derivative financial instruments.. used by Traders and Quantitative analysts who are more likely to run Excel on their grid than BLAST.

They can run Mathamatica or MATLAB or event Excel Services all out-of-the-box without a geek in sight.. but the big benefit is that you don’t need an army of IT support costing $100,000+ to support it.

Face facts winServ’08 is as good a kernel as Linux and MSMPI is an efficient implementation

What really matters...

Is what does COD4 run like on it and can you do quad SLI?

An interesting idea, maybe...

...but does it come with a inbuilt couch?