Do you have a “corner” in your living room, a cellar or a laundry room to store a supercomputer that will solve all your little one’s math problems?
In your earliest childhood, the film’s WOPR Wargaming (1982) made you dream? Then do you envy the computing power of the Cray-2 supercomputer designed by Cray Research?
Don’t move, we have a little announcement that is made for you, but perhaps a little less for your wallet, although the Cheyenne is ultimately not that expensive… well, basic!
145,152 CPU cores and 313 TB of RAM
Until November 2016, the Cheyenne supercomputer was considered the 20e most powerful in the world, and he was still 160e Just 7 years later, before the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center which was in charge of it decided to part with it… and put it up for sale.
By participating in the auction set up by GSA, you have the opportunity to purchase the beast. You will thus be able to equip yourself with great computing power thanks to the 145,152 CPU cores that make up the numerous Xeon Broadwell E502697v4 that make it up, distributed among 4,032 nodes. Just for good measure, the CPUs are accompanied by a crazy total of 313 TB of RAM… in DDR4-2400 “only”!
There’s nothing like a Cheyenne supercomputer at home to manage the family budget or export the edit of your latest vacation movie! That said, jokes aside, the Cheyenne announcement is still very accessible: at the time of writing, the bid is only at $40,000.
1,727 kW of power and a nice EDF bill!
There are still a little more than two days of bidding left, and it’s a safe bet that the price will increase. Note also that the (unknown) reserve price has not yet been reached, but that even if you could acquire the Cheyenne for less than $50,000, you would not be at the end of your troubles.
Indeed, first of all, the announcement clearly indicates that the costs of moving the Cheyenne are not taken into account. The beast is a real monster which requires a specialized company to dismantle and transport the 26 1U servers that make up the single management unit, knowing that it is associated with 10 extreme switches and 2 extreme switch power units. Imagine the entire supercomputer!
We do not have a precise idea of the total weight of the Cheyenne supercomputer, but the disassembly/transport/reassembly costs must be staggering, and we must also add the necessary cabling as well as think about the cooling system of such a machine . Last but not least, the electricity bill of such a monster!
In reality, it’s hard to even imagine what the 1,727 kW of power mentioned by the Top500 ranking could represent, when the Cheyenne was still at 160e place… especially since this excludes the consumption of the cooling system. Finally, do you still want it?
Sources: GSA, Wccftech
Having fallen into video games at a time when it took a great imagination to see here a football match, there a tank fight in these few bars represented on the screen, I have followed all the developments for forty years. Loyal to the PC, but a fan of all genres, I only have trouble with JRPGs. Otherwise, from the driest turn-based strategy to the most spectacular FPS, including sports simulations or musical games, I can do it all... with a preference for management and games combining several styles. My video game pantheon would consist of three series: Elite, Civilization and Max Payne.
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