
Cray XK6 System - evo_9
http://www.cray.com/Products/XK6/XK6.aspx
======
sp332
Check out this page: <http://www.cray.com/Products/XK6/Technology.aspx> The
network hardware is connected directly to the HyperTransport bus!

------
bengl3rt
So Cray used to make unique, iconic supercomputers and now their secret sauce
has been reduced to some interconnect for gluing together mass-market bits
like the next ODM?

Who drove them out of the supercomputer market? I know IBM still sells a bunch
of mainframes running operating systems you and I have never heard of or used.

~~~
jff
You can no longer make a supercomputer the old Cray way, by having Seymour
Cray design the fastest, most optimized CPU he possibly can and sticking it in
a box. Now you take thousands of processors (with an increasing trend toward
low-power low-heat processors rather than just the most powerful ones) and
glue them together--and the interconnect becomes one of the most important
parts!

Huge companies like IBM can afford to make their own custom chips for their
supercomputers (see Blue Gene L, P, and Q), but Cray isn't in that category.
They do create a lot of software for using their systems, and the hardware is
very well integrated, which is probably why they still do pretty good selling
to national labs.

We're realizing that now while you _can_ buy a bunch of computers and a 10 GbE
switch, it can be worth it to get a nice fully-integrated supercomputer
shipped to your door. It's ready to go, the software is installed, the cables
are the right length (and neatly arranged!), and when a node burns out you
just mail it back to Cray for a replacement.

------
rhizome
These days racks are so standardized it would be difficult, but it would be
cool if they made more of a nod to their past designs.

------
moizsyed
That shit cray.

~~~
jwoah12
Darn. You beat me to it.

