MACH 5

by Norm Nason

On Monday, June 28, 2004, Apple Computer Inc. will announce the sale of 1,566 dual processor 1U rack-mounted 64-bit Xserve G5 servers to COLSA Corp., which will be used to construct the second fastest supercomputer in the world. The machine, named MACH 5, will cost US $5.8 million, and will be used to model complex aero-thermodynasmics for the U.S. Army. It is expected to be online and working for the Aviation and Missle Research, Development Command by late Fall.

Dr. Anthony DiRienzo, executive vice president at COLSA Corp. told the press: "We did a best value competition and Apple won that competition. It was based on performance; the facility (power requirements, floor space, etc.); cost; and an assessment of vendor stability. We solicited six companies and they won."

According to Alex Grossman, Apple director of product management, server hardware, the new supercomputer is expected to deliver peak performance capability of more than 25 TFlops/second—over twice the speed achieved by Apple's Virginia Tech supercomputer announced last year. With those numbers, the MACH 5 would rank second only to Japan's $350 million Earth Simulator supercomputer—at a fraction of the price.

"We evaluated PC-based proposals from other vendors but none came close to delivering either the price, performance or manageability of the AppleXserve G5," said DiRienzo.