The Power and Legacy of Virginia Tech's Mac-Based Supercomputers
Summary
A detailed look at Virginia Tech's Mac-based supercomputers System X and System G, highlighting the use of 1,100 Power Mac G5s and later 324 Mac Pros to achieve high teraflop performance on a budget. The piece documents the hardware choices, cooling and power considerations, institutional collaboration, and the lasting legacy on academic HPC and energy-aware computing.