How would you like to fit a 70-Gigaflop supercomputer under your desk that is quiet enough to use in an office environment? While putting this under a home user's desk isn't the real intention, Tyan's latest beast, the Typhoon PSC personal supercomputer, could do just that. No larger than 2 desktop PCs and producing less than 45dB of noise, it's a mini powerhouse capable of supporting up to 64GB RAM and up to eight processors. Four clustered boards can each take two dual core processors, with configurations for both AMD Opterons and Intel Pentium Ds available. The AMD model is capable of using 64GB of DDR, and the Intel model is capable of using 32GB of DDR-2. Tyan's goal with this product is to give people a way to get a lot of processing power and make it very easily available, when desktop workstations don't cut it:
"With the introduction of the Typhoon PSC, Tyan is delivering a new kind of product that brings supercomputing into the office," commented Jeff Smith, UK manager of Tyan Computer. "The PSC will enable scientists, researchers, and developers to process simulations and visualizations faster, finish research experiments quicker, and provide them with an alternative to higher-priced, expansive server rooms that require huge amounts of resources and extensive infrastructure to support. We believe that the Typhoon PSC will create a new personal supercomputing market."
The pictures alone say a lot for the machine itself, almost resembling a large shuttle case and even having handles on the top. Later models of the PSC will be able to support the Xeon 5100 series using FBD memory. The first models are available immediately, with the more powerful Xeon versions expected for release later this year.