Seattle (WA) – Cray surprised the hardware community today with the launch of a Intel-Microsoft based supercomputer system, which according to the manufacturer, is the “most affordable supercomputer” the company ever offered and is claimed to be the world’s highest performing supercomputer that runs on standard office power.
Cray and Microsoft claim that their combination of the CX1 supercomputer system and Windows HPC Server 2008 is taking supercomputing into the mainstream, which may be a bit of a stretch, but there is no denying that at prices between $25,000 to $60,000, this new Cray system is much cheaper than the Cray supercomputers of the past.
The CX1 can be configured with up to 8 nodes and 16 Xeon DP 5200/5400-series processors (LGA771), which are available in dual-core and quad-core flavors, 1.86 to 3.40 GHz and TDP power consumption levels of 40 to 150 watts. A high-end CX1 would include 64 Xeon cores, 4 TB of internal storage and 512 GB of memory (64 GB per node). A spokesperson told us that the CX1 is designed as a deskside supercomputers (dimensions: 12.2” x 17.5” x 35.5”), which can be stacked up to three cases high, which means you could stretch these systems to up to 192 Xeon cores under your desk.
The standard configuration comes with a 1600 watt power supply, 10/100/1000 Mb/s UTP ports as well as a 12- or 24-port Infiniband switch. Cray noted that these systems can also include storage and visualization blades, which refers to graphics-focused accelerators and may be a hint to Intel’s Larrabee platform.
The CX1 is also Microsoft’s first serious showing of a HPC Server 2008 platform and the company’s goal to establish a reputation in what is perceived to become a supercomputing mass market sometime in the future.
The fact that this system carries Intel processors is a bit surprising as Cray and Intel announced earlier this year that their collaboration would not result in any Intel-based supercomputers before 2010 or 2011 – a time frame when Intel will have built up its Nehalem Armada and will be shipping its Larrabee accelerator boards.
Cray and Microsoft claim that their combination of the CX1 supercomputer system and Windows HPC Server 2008 is taking supercomputing into the mainstream, which may be a bit of a stretch, but there is no denying that at prices between $25,000 to $60,000, this new Cray system is much cheaper than the Cray supercomputers of the past.
The CX1 can be configured with up to 8 nodes and 16 Xeon DP 5200/5400-series processors (LGA771), which are available in dual-core and quad-core flavors, 1.86 to 3.40 GHz and TDP power consumption levels of 40 to 150 watts. A high-end CX1 would include 64 Xeon cores, 4 TB of internal storage and 512 GB of memory (64 GB per node). A spokesperson told us that the CX1 is designed as a deskside supercomputers (dimensions: 12.2” x 17.5” x 35.5”), which can be stacked up to three cases high, which means you could stretch these systems to up to 192 Xeon cores under your desk.
The standard configuration comes with a 1600 watt power supply, 10/100/1000 Mb/s UTP ports as well as a 12- or 24-port Infiniband switch. Cray noted that these systems can also include storage and visualization blades, which refers to graphics-focused accelerators and may be a hint to Intel’s Larrabee platform.
The CX1 is also Microsoft’s first serious showing of a HPC Server 2008 platform and the company’s goal to establish a reputation in what is perceived to become a supercomputing mass market sometime in the future.
The fact that this system carries Intel processors is a bit surprising as Cray and Intel announced earlier this year that their collaboration would not result in any Intel-based supercomputers before 2010 or 2011 – a time frame when Intel will have built up its Nehalem Armada and will be shipping its Larrabee accelerator boards.