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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly?
MSFT 479.20+0.2%Jan 9 9:30 AM EST
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To: jim shiau who wrote (9672)7/26/1998 9:30:00 AM
From: aeakos   of 74651
 
it's probably been posted but just in case:



From...


Researchers build flea-market
supercomputer

July 9, 1998
Web posted at: 12:20 PM EDT

by Stan Miastkowski

(IDG) -- Lots of advanced
PC users--especially
those handy with
tools--build their own
computers from standard
parts and pieces. It's kind
of the 1990s equivalent of
tinkering under the hood
of an automobile. And it
does allow you to build
powerful PCs at
bargain-basement prices.

But a do-it-yourself computer now working in New Mexico definitely sets a
record.

The computer--dubbed Avalon--was put together by researchers at Los
Alamos National Laboratory, a U.S. government installation that conducts
advanced scientific research. They assembled the system in three days
using off-the-shelf parts bought retail.



Avalon is far from a PC. It is, in fact, a true
supercomputer, one of the 500 fastest in
the world.

Avalon uses 68 Digital Equipment
Corporation Alpha processors connected
in parallel, and its operating system is
Linux, downloaded for free off the Web.
Instead of the multimillion-dollar price of
most supercomputers, Avalon came in at
the bargain-basement price of $150,000.

It's now crunching away on scientific data
at 19.2 billion operations per second,
many orders of magnitude beyond even
the most powerful and expensive PCs.

A Los Alamos spokesperson says that
Linux is the key to Avalon's success. After
six weeks of operation, stressed well
beyond its theoretical failure point, Avalon
hasn't crashed once.
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