The Cheyenne Supercomputer goes for a fraction of its record worth at public sale proper now

In case you’ve been fascinated about selecting up a brand new supercomputer however have been ready on a superb worth, now is likely to be a superb time to place in your bid. Proper now, the US authorities, through GSA Auctions, is auctioning off the Cheyenne Supercomputer to the very best bidder with three days remaining. Whereas we have not examined this one ourselves, we assume its 145,152 CPU cores will simply out-perform our present prime decide for a laptop computer. You additionally will not must improve the reminiscence anytime quickly, as there is a full 313,344GB of RAM at present put in, and the storage capability tallies as much as round 36 petabytes. No must delete recordsdata to make room for brand new video games or different media downloads.

GSA Auctions

Seize one of many world’s strongest supercomputers for a lot beneath record worth in the course of the US Authorities public sale. 

$28,000 at GSA Auctions

The deal was noticed by Ars Technica, who additionally level out that the fiber optic and CAT5/6 cabling will not be included within the sale. Whereas the worth the federal government paid for the supercomputer has not been disclosed, it is protected to imagine the price was properly into the thousands and thousands, contemplating the worth tags of different supercomputers. As of this writing, the bidding has reached $28,085, although the reserve has not but been met. There are nonetheless three days to go and there is at present no deposit required to put a bid.

The explanation for such a hefty low cost (aside from the truth that Cheyenne has been decommissioned) could possibly be defective fast disconnects inflicting water spray and the truth that roughly one p.c of nodes have “skilled failure” and “will stay unrepaired.” One different caveat to notice earlier than you begin making room in your arena-sized climate-controlled storage is that transport shouldn’t be included. As GSA Auctions notes on the small print web page, “shifting this method necessitates the engagement of an expert shifting firm” and that “the purchaser assumes duty for transferring the racks from the ability onto vans.”

However the place else will you discover such steep financial savings on a machine that may perform 5.34 quadrillion calculations per second? Cheyenne can be surprisingly energy-efficient, consuming 25 p.c much less vitality per computation than its predecessor, Yellowstone. The huge supercomputer helped researchers perceive the fast intensification of hurricanes, how wildfires influence air high quality, and simulated years of local weather features to foretell outcomes many years upfront. It ought to undoubtedly give you sufficient processing energy for excessive multitasking at work whereas dealing with even probably the most demanding video games after hours.

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