System X is a supercomputer assembled by Virginia Tech in the summer of 2003, comprising 1,100 Apple PowerMac G5 computers. System X is currently running at 12.25 Teraflops, making it the second fastest supercomputer used by an academic institution (second to the MareNostrum in Barcelona, Spain) and currently ranks #20 in the list of the world's most powerful supercomputers. A supercomputer is a computer that leads the world in terms of processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation, at the time of its introduction. ... This article or section should include material from Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Apple Computer, Inc. ... Power Mac G5 The Power Mac G5 is Apple Computers name for models of the Power Mac which utilize the PowerPC G5 processor. ... MareNostrum Supercomputer - CG rendered image. ... For other uses, see Barcelona (disambiguation). ...

The supercomputer's name (pronounced "System Ten") originates from the use of the Mac OS X operating system for each node, and because it was the first university computer to achieve 10 teraflops on the high performance LINPACK benchmark. The supercomputer is also known as "Big Mac" or Terascale Cluster due to its speed. On November 16, 2003, it was ranked by the TOP500 list as the third-fastest supercomputer in the world. It is also touted as "the world’s most powerful and cheapest homebuilt supercomputer." [1] This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... An operating system (OS) is an essential software program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. ... For commercial failures, see list of commercial failures. ... LINPACK is a software library for performing numerical linear algebra on digital computers. ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

System X was constructed with a relatively low budget of just $5.2 million, in the span of only three months, gained in large part because it used off-the-shelf G5 computers with dual-2.0 GHz processors. (By comparison, the Earth Simulator, cost approximately $400 million to build.) ESC cabinets The Earth Simulator (ES) was the fastest supercomputer in the world from 2002 to 2004, located at the Earth Simulator Center (ESC) in Kanazawa-ku (ward), Yokohama-shi, Japan. ...

In 2004, Virginia Tech upgraded its computer to Apple's newly-released Xserve G5 servers; the upgraded version was #7 in the 2004 TOP500 list, and cost one-fifth as much as the second least-expensive system in the top ten. System X will be followed by System L (50 teraflops) and System C (100 teraflops). 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The original Xserve Xserve, or Xserve G5 with more recent models, is the name of Apple Computers Macintosh 1U rackmount server computer. ...

In October of 2004, Virginia Tech partially rebuilt System X at a cost of about $600,000. These improvements brought the computer's speed up to 12.25 Teraflops, which placed System X #14 on the 2005 TOP500 list.

Virginia Tech's system was the model for Xseed, a smaller system also made from Xserve servers and built by Bowie State University in Maryland. Xseed was ranked #166 in the 2005 TOP500. Bowie State University, located on 338½ acres (1. ... Official language(s) None Capital Largest city Annapolis Baltimore Area  Ranked 42nd  - Total 12,417 sq. ...

External links

• Virginia Tech - Terascale Computing Facility
• TOP500 website
• Apple Profiles: Virginia Tech, 2003
• Apple Profiles: Virginia Tech, 2005