Virginia Tech ’s all - MacSystem Xsupercomputer , installed at the university ’s Terascale Computing Facility , made newspaper headline last year when it was determined to be the third - fast supercomputer in the cosmos . System X has been promote to Apple Computer Inc. ’s Xserve G5 server and now runs even quicker , with a sustained speed of 12.25 trillion operations per second — 19 pct faster than before .

Apple debuted the Power Mac G5 in 2003 , the first computer from Apple to sport a 64 - morsel PowerPC 970 chip fabricate by IBM , and a few client who placed early orders for the in high spirits - end modelling in the summertime of 2003 were block by what appear to be production delays . It was only break later that Apple had siphoned off some of those systems to station to Virginia Tech for consumption in System X , which was assembled and work bench - tested in clock time to qualify for last year’sTop 500 , a ranking of the humanity ’s fastest supercomputer presented by the Universities of Mannheim and Tennessee and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center ( NERSC ) .

At the time , Apple ’s Xserve system still used the older , slower G4 processor . Apple introduced the Xserve G5 at Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco , Calif. in January 2004 . Later that calendar month Virginia Tech indicated that it would elevate , and Apple start shipping the Xserve G5 in amount in March .

The Xserve G5 engage a much lower visibility in a wrack - mount system than a Power Mac G5 does , but a factor Virginia Tech cite in its decision to raise is the Xserve G5 ’s habit of RAM that employs Error Correcting Code ( ECC ) protection — a feature of speech scatty from the Power Mac .

One of System X ’s most singular features is its price . The system be $ 5.2 million to deploy , a small fraction of what comparable supercomputing facilities have be . Virginia Tech report that $ 600,000 was spent exchange System X to the Xserve G5 .

System X wo n’t retain its number three blot when this yr ’s Top 500 list is published : Other more brawny systems have descend online since 2003 that will supercede System X in natural computation index — though few , if any , are potential to compare to System X when it comes to Mary Leontyne Price - performance ratio . This class ’s Top 500 listing will be submit in November at the SC2004 conference in Pittsburgh , Penn .