Re:HPC Systems Special Offer: Two A64FX Nodes in a 2U for $40k
by reitzensteinm on Wednesday August 26, 2020 @07:23AM
(#24281387)
I'd also not focus too much on single node value for money; these machines come with Infiniband and are likely intended to be evaluation units for people that are interested in building a large cluster.
Fugaku cost $1 billion, with 159k nodes. That's only ~$6k per node, and that's if you assume the entire budget is allocated to the compute nodes, which it wouldn't nearly be. Wikipedia lists it as total program cost; so in addition to the facility, cooling and other equipment such as networking, it may well include years worth of operating expenses, staff, etc.
I believe the best way to view the price tag is: low enough that it's no barrier to anyone that's interested in building even a moderate cluster, but high enough to keep away anyone that's just toying around.
That way if somebody buys one of these machines and calls you up to ask a question, you're not wasting your time to treat it as a step in a longer sales process (meaning you let them talk to engineers, respond in depth etc).
Fugaku cost $1 billion, with 159k nodes. That's only ~$6k per node, and that's if you assume the entire budget is allocated to the compute nodes, which it wouldn't nearly be. Wikipedia lists it as total program cost; so in addition to the facility, cooling and other equipment such as networking, it may well include years worth of operating expenses, staff, etc.
I believe the best way to view the price tag is: low enough that it's no barrier to anyone that's interested in building even a moderate cluster, but high enough to keep away anyone that's just toying around.
That way if somebody buys one of these machines and calls you up to ask a question, you're not wasting your time to treat it as a step in a longer sales process (meaning you let them talk to engineers, respond in depth etc).