Re my earlier comment, as it happens SGI's new Altix UV has been
announced today (friend emailed me minutes ago, ironic timing),
as expected it's a shared-memory supercomputer using i7 XEONs,
with support for the newer 6/8-core i7s aswell:
http://www.sgi.com/company_info/newsroom/press_releases/2009/november/altix_uv.html
http://www.sgi.com/products/servers/altix/uv/
The initial product supports up to 2048 cores and 16TB RAM using
a 15GB/sec interconnect (NumaLink5). Remember this is a _single
system_ running one OS instance, it's not a cluster. Future
products will support up to 262,144 cores (32,768 sockets).
The Origin3K using NumaLink3 supported up to 1.5TB/sec I/O (the
system I have), so it should be interesting to see what Altix UV
can do with an interconnect that is 5X faster. The STREAM numbers
should be amazing.
Btw, a note about GPU computing: without 64bit fp support, many
of those products are useless for scientific apps. NVIDIA is
working on this, but they've a ways to go yet. Plus, some tasks
require continuous access to massive amounts of data, something
GPU-based solutions will not offer any time soon.
And for those who only care about Crysis, just get an Octane III
with four i7 XEONs and four Quadro FX5800 cards - that will run
it just fine. Twice. In one box.
Ian.