System X is a supercomputer assembled by Virginia Tech in the summer of 2003, that was originally comprised of 1,100 Apple Power Mac G5 computers. System X is currently running at 12.25 Teraflops, (20.24 peak), and ranked #47 in the November, 2006 edition of the TOP500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers.
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.
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."
System X was constructed with a relatively low budget of just $5.2 million, in the span of only three months, thanks in large part to using off-the-shelf G5 computers.
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.
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