Supercomputer with the power of 12,000 desktop machines

[engine]

With the power of 12,000 desktop PCs, the mammoth machine called HECToR is the country's fastest computer and one of the most powerful in Europe.

It can make 63 million calculations each second, allowing scientists to conduct research into everything from climate change to new medicines.

Supercomputer with the power of 12,000 desktop machines [uk.reuters.com]

That sounds one heck of a machine!

Other powerful machines
World's most powerful computers [uk.reuters.com]

[LifeinAsia]

As long as it's not 12,000 desktops running Windoze. ;)

[waynet]

It can make 63 million calculations each second

Actually that is pretty slow, the average PC is faster than that. The article should have said 63 million million or 63 trillion calculations each second. Now that is fast.

[thecoalman]

Location of the worlds fastest computer: [nsa.gov...]

Nicknamed: "icouldtellyouthatbutthenidhavetokillyou"

Pure specualtion on my part of course.

[surrealillusions]

LifeinAsia - i was thinking along the same lines..as long as this super computer hasn't got vista, then it will be quick ;)

[georgeek]

I see the machine cost 113 million UK pounds, so why didn't they just buy 12,000 PCs, string them all together and save themselves 110 million?

[adb64]

And guess what one of the applications is they will be using this thing for:

... working out why weetabix get soggy when you pour milk on them ;) ;)

[theinquirer.net...]

[ytswy]

Well if Moore's law holds true the average desktop should be this powerful in less than thirty years.

I bet the current Windows startup time will be at longer than it is today..

[longen]

It can make 63 million calculations each second

My PDA can do that and it cost a bit under £100M.

[Insomniak]

georgeek, a number of universities have done what you suggested and built supercomputers at a fraction of the cost by using networked macs. Virginia Tech did it first in 2003 with 1100 machines for $5.2 million.
[oreillynet.com...]

[Brett_Tabke]

If you are going to bring math into the equation, Vegas doubles in size every 10 years. By 2110, there will be 1 trillion people living in vegas.

I thought each of Googles datacenters had 10k machines in them? If they have 25 datacenters - wouldn't that be the fastest machine?