NEC Strikes Back With SX-8 Supercomputer

News for nerds writes "It was just 3 weeks ago that we learned IBM's BlueGene/L with 36.01 TFlops edged out NEC's Earth Simulator, but today NEC announces a new SX-8 supercomputer with a peak processing performance of 65 TFlops (press release). It may be available in the U.S. as Cray's OEM like SX-6."

Shallow Minds

[stecoop]

65 trillion calculations per second and all I ponder is if NEC would mind using my user id while running seti@home.

Packard Bell

[lateralus_1024]

Tom's Hardware stated the the guts are Packard Bell, and it comes with a WinModem. That sucks.

Yes, but...

[extagboy]

...can it figure out the question to the answer 42?

Damn....

[identity0]

Note that 'SX-8' pronounced 'Sex-ay' :-)

Real-world applications?

[Lieutenant_Dan]

It's very impressive and all, but how is this going to benefit me down the line? It's not like they're affordable to small/medium businesses like the Cray [cray.com] or HP's highly valued Alpha DEC workstations [compaq.com].

We are stiffling progress at the lower level by pricing these systems well beyond the reach of the average researcher or multi-national oil conglomerate.

Why is this?

Usage

[fembots]

I was about to say "With a computer this powerful, the world probably only needs 4 of these", but history tells me otherwise :)

Re:Shallow Minds

[CriX]

"The monthly rental price of the SX-8 starts from approximately 1,170,000 yen, and shipment will commence in December 2004."

Have you been a good little nerd? :-)

Re:Two words...

[bobgoatcheese]

No Grendel! Stop attacking my village! I think you forgot "cluster."

One Liners

[Anonymous Coward]

1) I won't go out on a limb but I'll stick my NEC out for this supercomputer.

2) SX-8? Is that the next in line to SSX Tricky?

3) As you can see, I am resolute on this war on Tera...and my opponent is clearly a Tera-flopping machine.

4) Please don't write articles with "$COMPANY Strikes Back" as its title. It begs "Return of the $RIVAL_COMPANY" as a follow-up.

Re:Runs Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just let us know when you want us to join in this conversation, thanks.

Re:BGL will be back on top in short order

[The Lost Supertone]

8 racks... brings new meaning to "look at that rack!"

Re:What about cost?

[tokenhillbilly]

Actually, the computer price is quite reasonable. It's the nuclear power plant to supply the 21 million jigawatts required to run it and its cooling system that will set you back big bucks.

65 Tflops on my desktop

[websage]

Even with 65Tflops it still takes 3 min to apply my desktop settings.

Re:In the interest of perpetuating rumors

[Mekabyte]

So is that why he's never there to teach my Networking class anymore?

Re:One Liners

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd mod you up, but there is no "+1, painfully bad jokes."

Re:Make your time

[Gil-galad55]

The SX-8 has no chance to survive.

NEC, make your time.

Re:Yes, but...

[outriding9800]

Alex... What is 42 ?

But..

[SnarfQuest]

How well does it handle XP SP2?