The world’s first supercomputer, installed in 1977, was 160 mflops the size of a small car, required its own power supply and cooling system, and cost almost US$9 million. In comparison, specialist high-end motherboard and system maker, Tyan Computer, has released the Typhoon PSC.
Delivering supercomputer power in a mobile, desk-side unit, Typhoon models can accommodate up to eight processors and 64GB of memory, delivering up to 70 Gigaflops performance in a unit no bigger than two desktop PCs, says the company.
The Typhoon PSC will appeal to users of compute-intensive applications in graphics rendering, data warehousing, financial and statistical analysis, scientific research, and the oil and gas industries, Tyan said.
With a mobile system like the Typhoon PSC, the supercomputer can be deployed easily in departments, on demand, the company said, adding that unlike the supercomputers of the past, the Typhoon PSC is quiet (<45dB) and plugs into a standard 13A power socket.
“With the introduction of the Typhoon PSC, Tyan is delivering a new kind of product that brings supercomputing into the office,” said Tyan Computer’s Jeff Smith. “The PSC will enable scientists, researchers, and developers to process simulations and visualizations faster, finish research experiments quicker, and provide them with an alternative to higher-priced, expansive server rooms that require huge amounts of resources and extensive infrastructure to support. We believe that the Typhoon PSC will create a new personal supercomputing market.”
In addition, multiple Typhoon PSC systems can be daisy-chained to form a super cluster. LAN party, anyone?
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