Earlier, Colsa had experimented with one of the first Apple clusters using 17 Power Mac G4 systems when clusters weren't yet fashionable. When it decided to add supercomputing power to its operations, it tested everything out there including AMD Athlon, Intel Xeon, AMD Opteron, Intel Itanium2, and PowerPC G5. Colsa benchmarked a total of eight systems using its primary production application. This test involved simplified geometry with 2 million grid points and aero-thermodynamics of 12 chemical species in the atmosphere and engine combustion products. One cluster had a reliable processor but high power and heat requirements. Another had a capable but expensive processor that was four or five times more expensive than the G5.
Once Apple servers were selected, the physical installation took about eight days. The organization is now benchmarking the complete Apple supercluster in its production environment.
"We are performing both Linpack benchmarks as well as benchmarks specific to the particular CFD code that is used by our government customer," said DiRienzo. "We expect to be in full production in February 2005."
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