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news.cnet.com — The Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is home to one of the world's top supercomputing labs. Just seeing all this iron makes me want one for my basement :) Cool photo tour!!
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- pitchblack16, on 07/08/2008, -3/+10interesting
- JettaMan, on 07/09/2008, -8/+1These government employees with their "supercomputers" is pure small-penis phenomenon. They could do all the computing they need on fast PCs, but they have access to the bottomless pit of taxpayer money, hence PCs aren't good enough for them. They need the Ferrari so they can blab about how important they must be, otherwise why would they need supercomputers unless they were important?
- Namco, on 07/09/2008, -1/+3You fail on a massive scale. Why don't you read the captions on the pretty pictures and learn what they use that processing power for?
- docfreezzzz, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1Buried as dumb!!! I use machines like these everyday. Trust me, they get used. Also, these machines are mostly commodity hardware (ie. fast PCs in rack form) with some very specialized (ie. vector processors - Cray) machines for specialized work. Just because you cannot fathom the need does not mean it is not there.
- elpohl, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1That doesn't meet the first post requirements. Buried!
- JettaMan, on 07/09/2008, -8/+1These government employees with their "supercomputers" is pure small-penis phenomenon. They could do all the computing they need on fast PCs, but they have access to the bottomless pit of taxpayer money, hence PCs aren't good enough for them. They need the Ferrari so they can blab about how important they must be, otherwise why would they need supercomputers unless they were important?
- brainnovate, on 07/25/2008, -1/+12Imagine the games you could play on those rigs...
- ufia, on 07/09/2008, -3/+2Aren't games more demanding on the GPU? So I guess those supercomputers wouldn't do you much help for playing realtime action games, unless you want jaw dropping high quality screenshots of game over.
- brainnovate, on 07/25/2008, -0/+7You must have missed the part of the article where they talked about the visualization system.
- wondertwins, on 07/09/2008, -0/+12Crysis with 40 frames per second!!
- utkwes, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1We played Quake on the Visualization Wall and watched the movie Terminator when I was there.
- ufia, on 07/09/2008, -3/+2Aren't games more demanding on the GPU? So I guess those supercomputers wouldn't do you much help for playing realtime action games, unless you want jaw dropping high quality screenshots of game over.
- gubatron2, on 07/08/2008, -0/+11would like to see pictures of google's datacenters
- kiranlightpaw, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3A lot of Google's equipment is in facilities scattered around the country. Chances are big G has some servers in several datacenters in most major cities.
I've seen some of their equipment in a datacenter in Atlanta. The funny thing is that the facility won't confirm or deny that it's Google. They simply refer to them as "the client." - alach11, on 07/09/2008, -4/+0But can they run Crysis on very high?
- kiranlightpaw, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3A lot of Google's equipment is in facilities scattered around the country. Chances are big G has some servers in several datacenters in most major cities.
- starpower2000, on 07/08/2008, -0/+4pretty cool
- ubernoggin, on 07/08/2008, -0/+28However, the WOPR will always have a special place in our hearts.
- brainnovate, on 07/25/2008, -0/+5Can't wait for the special edition of the movie to come out... such a generation defining film for us [relative] oldtimers.
- P373Y, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4that thing was a box with an apple two and a guy in it.
- Lunarbunny, on 07/09/2008, -0/+9Strange game, the only winning move is not to play...
- bdbr, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3I worked on computer systems in the Air Force when that movie came out. We all got a big kick out that movie. A computer that controls the entire nuclear weapons arsenal....with DIAL IN access! What could go wrong?!?!
- brainnovate, on 07/25/2008, -0/+5Can't wait for the special edition of the movie to come out... such a generation defining film for us [relative] oldtimers.
- BennyGreenberg, on 07/08/2008, -0/+13Want to play a game...
- lamiaconfitor, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1"Global thermo-nuclear war? ... What is this?"
- hep2djive, on 07/08/2008, -2/+2Dude... Good read... thx
- DrNicole, on 07/08/2008, -1/+6Do they come in hot pink though? If so I will take one.
- brainnovate, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1Looks like red or orange are the only colors available.
- DrNicole, on 07/08/2008, -1/+1That is too nerdy for me. They need to make a barbie nerd doll to properly represent all the hot doctors out there...I would be unstoppable with that computer though. High speed internet is too slow for me. LOL
- Aquarijen, on 07/11/2008, -0/+0Yes, you can order them in hot pink. We ordered them in orange and white because the University of Tennessee's colors are Orange and White. :)
You can get them in ANY color you wish.
- Crossmenjeff, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4how about since war games 2? thats right... they made a sequel.
- ghostlywind, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1It was good till they got to Stephen Hawkins, then it just got severely goofy.
- P373Y, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2you ruined my day
- diggmc, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Unfortunately! That's an hour and change of my life I won't get back.
- jstem1994, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1from IMDB: "Computer hacker Will Farmer (Lanter) engages a goverment super-computer named Ripley in an online terrorist-attack simulation game. Little does Farmer know that Ripley has been designed to appeal to potential terrorists, and certain glitches have turned made him become paranoid."
I hate it when things turn made me become paranoid...
- blindhammer, on 07/09/2008, -0/+16Yes, but can it play Global Thermal Nuclear War?
- rz8472, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Boooring. Tic Tac Toe FTW (or L if you're WOPR)
- DelMonte, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1For WOPR it would be FTT (as in: For The Tie!)
- saltmiser, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1or tic tac toe
- rz8472, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Boooring. Tic Tac Toe FTW (or L if you're WOPR)
- Owwmykneecap, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2What do they do with it?
whatever it is they better seed.
Minnie Riperton for Life! - mct75, on 07/09/2008, -4/+0My dad works at ORNL. He is with the SNS.
- Namco, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3I work for KFHP under KPIT supporting SSL RAS for MDs, RNs, and MBAs.
- elpohl, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1My uncle works for the ORLY corporation, he supports LOL WTF, and OMG BBQs.
- rawrzzz, on 07/09/2008, -5/+3These computers have enough processing power to max 2 copies of Crysis and play minesweeper at the same time.
- mrblue182, on 07/09/2008, -3/+1Crysis references are getting old. Quit already.
- WorldGroove, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Will render all the 3D scenes in Transformers in 5mins or your money back.
- docfreezzzz, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Actually, Pixar has an account with ORNL doing work in real time ray tracing. So... yes it is used for that.
- elektronjunge, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2meh. RoadRunner was cooler, I'd show pics but if I brought a camera in there I would be posting from Gitmo...
- gimpbully, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2are you kidding?! roadrunner's just an infiniband cluster with some accellerators (don't kid yourself, that's all a cell is). XT3's are far cooler :)
- VeroZ, on 07/09/2008, -0/+10but can it run oregon trail?
- saltmiser, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4no
- frascellyboy273, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4blue gene looks pretty badass
- whitecranberry, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Yeah. You want that hard iron in your basement for what? ... well?
- ninesky01, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2"sir, the jaguar is coming out of cryostasis"
"RUN! run for your puny little lives!"
"take me to the cube" - MalamuteTX, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4In 30 years, the chassis of these supercomputers will look just as ridiculous as the current pictures of "supercomputers" that existed 30 years ago.
- m0tbaillie, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Thing is, each chassis that you were seeing 30 years ago was a single computer. Within each of these, you're talking about a dozen racks, two boxes each, each box would probably contain two processors (which are quad core)... see where I'm going?
- gimpbully, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1since when does the Cray-1 look ridiculous?
- Aquarijen, on 07/11/2008, -0/+0These won't be around in 30 years.
- aroundtown, on 07/09/2008, -0/+5"175th most powerful" ... the problem is they are still using wires.
- yedrellow, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3I guess we may finally have a rig capable of playing Duke Nukem Forever.
- FattyCorpuscle, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Those are nice looking Crays but where's the love...seat?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cray-1-deutsche ... - Jpeman, on 07/09/2008, -3/+1I live about 15 mins from Oak Ridge. This is just the tip of the iceberg for some of the crazy cool stuff this place has. I could tell ya some stories, but I like my freedom too much.
- AWBoy666, on 07/09/2008, -1/+5Oak Ridge is such a cool place.....it holds a kind of mystical aura unlike any other place in Tennessee.
- Everen, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3That would be from all of the radiation.
- tacojohn48, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1scarily enough the control room at the reactor i saw looks like that 13th picture in the article.
- Everen, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3That would be from all of the radiation.
- Namco, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2But can it emulate Pong yet?
- kamisama, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2A Cray is still one sexy animal.
- diggenerate, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2If they already have the 5th most powerful computer in the world why do they need the 175th?
- Toupee, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2Funny, in my head I expected this to be a Doctor Who reference.
You see, in the latest episode of the new series, Catherine Tate's character Donna's memory of the Doctor is completely removed ... just like what happens to the 2nd Doctor, Patrick (Ol' Trouty!) Troughton's companions Jamie and Zoe, way back in 1969.
Sad stuff. Both brilliant stories. Sorry for the spoilers. :( - Uciaf, on 07/09/2008, -0/+0Folding@Home has about 2 petaflop, which is twice as big as the worlds best supercomputer.
- dhuffman1223, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Been there!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/f-stop/214448487/in/s ... - seraph582, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Wow. I didn't think there was much of anything other than mountains, rivers, spitoons, and pickemup trucks anywhere outside of Nashville in Tennessee!
- OakRidger, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1See - there you go not thinking again :)
- docfreezzzz, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Been there... seen that! Its really cool in person. Jaguar is absolutely massive and is undergoing expansion to twice the size I believe. I work on some pretty massive computing clusters myself but that facility draws power in the Megawatt range. Good post!
- BuddyStein, on 07/11/2008, -0/+1Scheduled to be upgraded next year to four NVIDIA Graphics cards!
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