In fact, Cray's new CX1 supercomputer is priced starting at a relatively cheap $25,000, not bad for an integrated box that weaves together compute, storage, and visualization functions. Cray has designed the CX1 to remove some of the complexity involved with supercomputing that has hindered its adoption, particular in smaller organizations.
Based on 64-bit Windows Server 2008, Windows HPC Server 2008 can scale to thousands of processing cores and features high end management capabilities that span both Windows and Linux platforms. The CX1 uses up to 8 nodes and 16 Intel Xeon processors, with up to 64 gigabytes of memory per node; and also includes up to 4 terabytes of internal storage.
The CX1 is the first Cray supercomputer to use Intel processors, and is also the first fruit from the pact the two companies announced in April to work together on supercomputing systems and technologies over the next few years.
The CX1 is available through Cray's Website and comes with a three-year warranty that includes next-day, on-site Cray-certified support.
Supercomputers help power research in a wide variety of fields, including aerospace, astrophysics, bioinformatics, chemical physics, climate change prediction, medical imaging and the global ATLAS project, which is investigating the forces that govern the universe.
