Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FJB who wrote (202415)	6/15/2006 10:33:13 PM
From: Joe NYC	Respond to of 275872

Bob, Shoot, I think Joe Halada and BUGGI could slap that puppy together in a week. We have to assume K8L won't ship until late 2008. LOL. Another factor (other than the length of the build) could be Deerhound vs. Cerebus: theinquirer.net theinquirer.net The info is somewhat unclear, but it seems to me that Deerhound may have HT 3.0, and more HT links, the cache coherence will stay the same as current Opterons. It will make building glueless 4way perform better, 8way easy, > than that a possibility, Cerebus will come with DC 2.0, which will feature improved coherency, which may possibly make the entire Baker system glueless (or needing much less glue). Another issue may be DDR2 (G) vs. FB-DIMM. (H). If the decision was for FB-DIMM, it implies Cerebus. Joe

To: FJB who wrote (202415)	6/15/2006 10:59:37 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Science to get a power boost Supercomputer set for an upgrade at Oak Ridge National Laboratory By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com June 15, 2006 OAK RIDGE - A new agreement with Cray Inc. will rapidly upgrade Oak Ridge National Laboratory's "Jaguar" supercomputer, perhaps making it the world's fastest machine for open scientific uses by the end of this year. The $180 million contract also includes the delivery of an as-yet-unnamed supercomputer - capable of one "petaflop," or 1,000 trillion calculations per second - by the end of 2008. "I'm on cloud nine," Thomas Zacharia, ORNL's scientific computing chief, said Wednesday. "From a laboratory perspective, we are very fortunate. This program is really coming to life." Zacharia said the contract with Cray was signed last week. The excitement is tempered only by the responsibility of bringing these awesome, groundbreaking machines to operation on a tight schedule and within the established scope and budget, he said. In 2004, the Oak Ridge laboratory was selected to head U.S. efforts to reclaim leadership in high-end scientific computing, and the venture with Cray is a big part of that program. ORNL has a stable of supercomputers in its National Center for Computational Sciences, and the leader of the pack is a Cray XT3, known as Jaguar. It currently is listed as the 10th fastest computer in the world, with a peak capability of 25 teraflops - or 25 trillion calculations per second. The Jaguar is used for scientific research on high-priority projects, from global climate change to nuclear fusion to complex biological structures. The new generation of computers allows scientists to attempt research projects and complex simulations that simply were impossible before. Within the next two months, the processors in the orange-and-white Jaguar cabinets will be doubled, pushing its peak capability up to 50 teraflops, Zacharia said. By the end of the calendar year, the supercomputer will be expanded, and the top end will reach 100 teraflops. In 2007, according to Zacharia, the number of processors will again be doubled, with Jaguar's processing capability expected to reach 250 teraflops, or 250 trillion calculations per second. The upgrades of Jaguar will lead ORNL into its next big computing venture: a petaflop machine for scientific research. Zacharia said he believes the lab's contract with Cray is the first ever to include the purchase of a petaflop machine. The new supercomputer will have a superscalar architecture similar to that of the Cray XT3, and it should be capable of being upgraded to an "even much bigger system," he said. "Right now it's code-named 'Baker' by Cray," the associate lab director said. It apparently will be manufactured as a Cray XT5, he said. ORNL will give the computer a nickname, and Zacharia said lab personnel are being asked to come up with nominations for the milestone machine. Traditionally, the supercomputers have been named after speedy animals, such as the jaguar and cheetah, but that could change this time around, he said. "Petaflop is such a milestone," Zacharia said. "I think we want to emphasize the scientific capability of this machine." Japan and European nations also are working on petascale computing projects, and the international competition is intense. ORNL is leading the U.S. government's effort in high-end scientific computing, although numerous other labs and institutions are supporting the endeavor. Zacharia said the computer advancements are complementing other big projects at ORNL, such as the Spallation Neutron Source, the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, and the U.S. headquarters for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. "There is so much scientific excitement at the laboratory," he said. Senior Writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. knoxnews.com