I Tried To Buy A Supercomputer...
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the creator, Mudahar, discusses his attempt to purchase the Cheyenne supercomputer from GSA Auctions, which ultimately failed due to the high final bid of $480,000 and logistical challenges. He had considered buying the supercomputer for collaborative content creation with other YouTubers, showcasing its capabilities and the infeasibility of breaking encryption with such power. The video also touches on the supercomputer's specs, including its 4,032 dual socket units, 8,064 processors, and 313,000 USD daily operational cost. Mudahar highlights the use of supercomputers in various fields like quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, and climate research. He also mentions the Condor supercluster, a military supercomputer built from 1,760 PlayStation 3s running Linux. Despite the Cheyenne's decommissioning due to memory failure issues, Mudahar reflects on the supercomputer's historical significance and the decision to sell it for parts rather than personal use.
Takeaways
- ๐ป The speaker, Mudahar, discusses his attempt to buy a supercomputer from GSA Auctions, specifically the Cheyenne supercomputer.
- ๐ซ Mudahar was unable to purchase the supercomputer due to timing issues and challenges in setting up accounts for such a large purchase.
- ๐ฐ The final bid for the Cheyenne supercomputer was $480,000, which Mudahar considered not worth the time and effort.
- ๐ค Mudahar had considered collaborating with other YouTubers to purchase and operate the supercomputer, but the timing was not feasible.
- ๐ The purpose of buying the supercomputer was to create content around its capabilities, such as attempting to break encryption.
- ๐ฎ He also wanted to demonstrate the impracticality of gaming on a supercomputer due to software limitations.
- ๐ฆ The Cheyenne supercomputer came with 14 units, each weighing 1,500 lb, and had a high operational cost.
- ๐ก The supercomputer had 4,032 dual socket units with 8,064 processors E5 2697 v4s, each an 18-core processor with base frequencies of 2.3 GHz.
- โ๏ธ Supercomputers are used for complex tasks like quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, oil and gas exploration, and climate research.
- ๐ The world's fastest supercomputers run on Linux, highlighting the operating system's role in high-performance computing.
- ๐ The US Air Force once used 1,760 PlayStation 3 systems to create a supercomputing cluster, demonstrating the versatility of Linux in distributed computing.
- ๐ The Cheyenne supercomputer was decommissioned due to increasing failure rates and was sold off for parts, marking the end of its operational life.
Q & A
What was the final bid for the Cheyenne supercomputer?
-The final bid for the Cheyenne supercomputer was $480,000.
Why did Mudahar consider buying the supercomputer?
-Mudahar considered buying the supercomputer to create content around it, such as demonstrating the infeasibility of breaking encryption with it and possibly showing gaming on a supercomputer.
What were some of the challenges Mudahar faced in attempting to purchase the supercomputer?
-Challenges included timing issues, setting up accounts for purchasing, obtaining the necessary financial information, and the difficulty of spending such a large sum of money on the auction.
What is the purpose of supercomputers according to the video?
-Supercomputers are used for tasks that require massive computational power, such as quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, oil and gas exploration, and climate research.
Why did the US Air Force use PlayStation 3 systems to create a supercomputer cluster?
-The US Air Force used PlayStation 3 systems because they were capable of running Linux and could be connected to create a distributed supercomputer cluster, which was cost-effective and efficient for their needs.
What is the significance of the 'other OS' feature on the PlayStation 3?
-The 'other OS' feature allowed users to install Linux onto the PlayStation 3, enabling it to be used as a part of a distributed supercomputing cluster, as demonstrated by the US Air Force's Condor supercluster.
Why was the Cheyenne supercomputer decommissioned?
-The Cheyenne supercomputer was decommissioned because the failure rate, particularly with the memory, had started to increase, indicating it was time to rely on more powerful supercomputers.
What are the top supercomputers in the world as of November 2023?
-As of November 2023, the top supercomputers in the world are primarily located in the United States, with the top one belonging to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and others in Japan, Finland, Italy, and Spain.
Why did Mudahar ultimately decide against purchasing the Cheyenne supercomputer?
-Mudahar decided against purchasing the Cheyenne supercomputer due to the high cost, the time it would take to set up the purchase, and the potential that the buyer could make more profit by selling the parts instead.
What is the total number of cores in the Cheyenne supercomputer?
-The Cheyenne supercomputer has a total of 4,152 cores.
How much would it cost per day to operate the Cheyenne supercomputer based on current electrical prices?
-Based on current electrical prices, it would cost approximately $313,000 per day to operate the Cheyenne supercomputer.
What is the significance of the top 500 list in the context of supercomputers?
-The top 500 list is a ranking of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, providing insight into the current state of supercomputing technology and its advancements.
Outlines
๐ Failed Attempt to Purchase a Supercomputer
The speaker, Mudahar, discusses his unsuccessful endeavor to buy a supercomputer from the US auction website, GSA Auctions. He had considered purchasing the Cheyenne supercomputer for content creation, specifically to demonstrate the impracticality of breaking encryption with such powerful systems. The final bid for the supercomputer was $480,000, which Mudahar deemed not worth the time and effort required to set up the necessary accounts and finances. He also touches upon the logistical challenges of shipping and powering the supercomputer, which has 4,032 dual socket units and 8,064 processors. The operational costs were estimated to be $313,000 per day, based on current electricity prices, which further dissuaded him from the purchase.
๐ The Power and Purpose of Supercomputers
Mudahar provides an overview of the top supercomputers in the world, as listed in the November 2023 top 500 list. He mentions the leading supercomputer at Oakridge National Laboratory, which has approximately 8.7 million cores. Supercomputers are used for complex tasks such as quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, oil and gas exploration, and climate research, running numerous simulations in parallel. The speaker highlights that these powerful machines run entirely on Linux and shares an anecdote about the US Air Force using 1,760 PlayStation 3 systems to create a supercomputer cluster capable of 500 teraflops. He also mentions the decommissioning of the Cheyenne supercomputer due to increasing failure rates, suggesting that its parts might be more valuable sold separately.
๐ธ The Economics of Buying a Supercomputer
Reflecting on the decision not to purchase the Cheyenne supercomputer, Mudahar emphasizes the impracticality of investing half a million dollars for a project that was initially considered more as a novelty or for content creation. He acknowledges that the supercomputer's high starting bid of $50 quickly escalated, and despite the potential for creating engaging content, the time and financial investment outweighed the benefits. The speaker concludes by stating that supercomputers are fascinating and that he may consider building a smaller-scale system in the future. He ends the video with a note on the Cheyenne supercomputer's legacy and the ever-evolving world of supercomputing.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กSupercomputer
๐กGSA Auctions
๐กDistributed Computing
๐กEncryption
๐กWater Cooling System
๐กDual Socket Units
๐กProcessors E5 2697 v4s
๐กMemory
๐กDecommissioned
๐กTop 500 List
๐กLinux
Highlights
Mudahar discusses his attempt to buy a supercomputer from GSA Auctions.
The Cheyenne supercomputer was up for auction, with a final bid of $480,000.
Mudahar considered buying the supercomputer to collaborate with other YouTubers.
The process of setting up accounts for purchasing was time-consuming and challenging.
Breaking encryption with a supercomputer was a topic Mudahar wanted to showcase.
Gaming on a supercomputer is not as exciting due to software limitations.
The Cheyenne supercomputer has 4,032 dual socket units and 8,064 processors.
Operating the supercomputer would cost approximately $313,000 per day based on current electrical prices.
The buyer is likely to dismantle the supercomputer for parts and sell them for profit.
Supercomputers are used for complex tasks such as quantum mechanics and climate research.
The top supercomputers in the world are listed on the TOP500 list.
The US Air Force once used 1,760 PlayStation 3 systems to create a supercomputer cluster.
The Cheyenne supercomputer was decommissioned due to increasing failure rates.
Mudahar considered the purchase more of a 'meme' but was deterred by the cost and effort.
Supercomputers are constantly evolving, with new models offering greater power and efficiency.
Mudahar expresses interest in building a smaller-scale supercomputer in the future.
The Cheyenne supercomputer's sale represents a shift from its historical significance to a practical end.
Transcripts
hello guys and gals me mudahar and today
I wanted to talk about me failing to buy
a
supercomputer yeah you heard that right
ladies and gentlemen now you're looking
at a US auction website right over here
called GSA Auctions all right now if
you're looking at this this is the
Cheyenne supercomputer and if you've
been following you know computer stuff
for the last couple days you might have
noticed that amongst all of the things
available to buy was a supercomputer so
for most people following these days the
rap beef between two rappers is kind of
the news but for me trying to purchase a
supercomputer was something that was
seriously in my
considerations and I failed so to give
you an idea of it this is the current
bid for it the final bid
$480,000 for the Cheyenne superc Compu
and it's been met and this computer's
been sold this is something that I was
seriously considering to the point where
I wanted to purchase it alongside or
purchase it for myself but really wanted
to work with other YouTubers as well I
sented a few messages to lonus Tech
group uh a few of the other Tech
channels right here just to see if
anybody could facilitate if I could just
buy this computer and somebody may have
had the space and the power requirements
to run something like this unfortunately
the timing was too little to set up the
accounts for purchasing this was already
a nuisance in of itself you needed to
get like all of your information your
fin tracks everything to go and honestly
the ability to get this much money on a
dime was a challenge in of itself
spending half a million dollars to
purchase the Cheyenne supercomputer was
just really not worth the time now from
a money perspective honestly buying this
the whole point of us to purchase this
was to make like a bit of content out of
it to show people things like breaking
encryption using a supercomputer and how
infeasible it is even if you have some
of the most top-of-the-line syst systems
out there and using all the distributed
computing possible it would show you
that breaking encryptions and various
easily accured security like practices
was almost an impossibility right even
with the Cheyenne supercomputer or a lot
of supercomputers in general breaking
things like encryption which keeps a lot
of your personal information private and
secure from not just me you various
prying eyes but multiple governments is
something that I wanted to Showcase and
amongst else I wanted to kind of show
you how gaming on a supercomputer was
going to happen even though gaming on a
supercomputer is really not that
exciting okay when you take one node out
of these supercomputers the software
just doesn't really translate that well
over to something that is supposed to be
designed to distribute its Computing so
to give you an idea the cheyen
supercomputer the water cooling system
basically this whole thing came with 14
different units weighing 1,500 lb each
so the whole problem was to grab this
thing and also ship it over to Canada or
potentially a warehouse that we would
have probably gotten somewhere in the
United States anyways and then of course
beyond all of it they ended up giving
4,032 dual socket units right nodes and
of course
8,064 processors E5 2697 v4s all right
and of course these are 18 core
processors each with 2.3 GHz base
frequencies turboing up to 3.6 GHz as
well total corewise you're looking at4
4,152 cores okay as far as memory goes
boys and girls you've got 64 gigs per
node basically totaling to
313,000 us per day from my understanding
based on current electrical prices to
operate this computer so asides from
purchasing this for a meme look some
people like to buy Ferraris and Lambos
and mansions me this would have been a
great buy if it wasn't for the fact that
it got priced out to no Oblivion now the
person that did end up buying this I
highly understand that they're probably
going to take this thing gut it for
parts and sell it and they'll actually
make a profit out out of it the problem
is is we kind of considered that here
but the thing is it just took way too
much time out of our days to even
consider doing that so honestly a lot
easier to make money in other capacities
versus trying to pimp out and price out
and basically Chop Shop a super computer
even though that also in retrospect
would have been a pretty Banger video to
talk about okay to chop shop an entire
former US supercomputer now
supercomputers are without a doubt
constantly evolving and one thing that
it's worth looking at if you ever are
interested in a topic like this is the
top 500 list so according in November
2023 the top 10 which is the top 10
supercomputers in the entire world right
now are all categorized in a list so for
instance in the top supercomputer that
belongs to Oakridge National Laboratory
okay and that is in the United States
and they are looking at
8.6 basically 8.7 million cores okay and
the power requirements on this are AST
nomical so yeah that's a lot of
godamn cores available and the pedop
flops which again these are really
really fast computers really really
designed for distributed work that's
what they're listed at so of course the
top three are located in the United
States after that you get to the fugaku
in Japan you get to the Lumi in Finland
then Italy the US Spain in the United
States again the US kind of holds a
monopoly on a lot of these
supercomputers so at least the top ones
that are available now you might be
wondering but muda why would anybody
need to use a supercomputer for okay
what is the use for something this
goddamn powerful does it allow you to do
like crazy things like simulate entire
worlds within no supercomputers are used
for things like quantum mechanics
forecasting the weather oil and gas
exploration and climate research so the
way that these things work is they're
designed to run multiple simulations
upon simulations upon simulations and
using the distributed power and the
available power already we're able to
simulate a bunch of things that
supercomputers are able to do with the
amount of actual processing that they
are capable of when you distribute all
of it now the thing is all of the
supercomputers or at least the world's
fastest ones also run entirely on Linux
and one of the things about Linux is
supercomputing is such a weird form
where to an extent even the United
States military when they wanted to
build a supercomputer cluster the US Air
Force had purchased
1,700 and 60 PlayStation and three
systems to use them to build a
distributed supercomputer Computing
cluster so if you don't know the story
of the Condor super cluster this image
is a little low resolution but these are
all PlayStation 3s basically lined up
connected to each other all designed to
run in parallel and create what is a
super computer cluster and that is the
PlayStation 3 system so back in the day
when the PS3 dropped it came with a
feature known as other OS which allowed
users to install Linux onto it so the
Army before this feature was taken away
by Sony they had BAS basically installed
Linux connected these devices together
and created a super Computing cluster
that they used in the Army and
apparently it became a pretty
good supercomputer to the point where it
was able to Output 500 Tera flops and
this is back in 2010 that this was
reported so it's actually kind of funny
too because when you look at the history
of supercomputing in Sony this wasn't
the first time any military was alleged
to use it back in the day a group a news
site known as the World Net daily had I
guess falsely reported that 4,000
PlayStation 2 systems were being bought
up by Saddam Hussein I made a
video on this like probably six years
ago where I talked about this whole
story but the idea was it was alleged
that Saddam had purchased all these
PlayStation 2 supercomputers or
Playstation 2 systems basically got
Linux installed from my understanding
and Jerry rigged it together to make a
PlayStation 2 era supercomputer and
according to euro daily at the time what
they had basically said World Net Daily
was that a single PlayStation can
generate up to 75 million polygons per
second so again these are extremely
useful in military design and modeling
applications bundled PlayStation
computers can be used to calculate
ballistic data for long range missiles
or in the design of nuclear weapons dude
but one of the claims that apparently
they made was an integrated bundle of 12
to 15 PlayStations could provide enough
computing power to control an Iraqi
unmanned aerial vehicle or
UAV God damn nowadays an iPhone could
probably part control multiple uavs for
crying out loud but these were one of
those hoaxes that people just like to
laugh at but going back to the cheyen
supercomputer it was decommissioned and
parts of the supercomputer were being
sold simply because the failure rate had
started to reach from my understanding
something with the memory had started to
cause more failures and at that point it
was just time to decommission it and
basically rely on the more powerful
supercomputers that existed now of
course in the world of supercomputers
out there you could buy this for your
own personal research but I think the
juice isn't worth the squeeze the person
buying this could probably get it
working up and again but it's probably
worth more to just gut this thing out
and sell it for parts of that point
that's the only way that an actual
investment could probably uh bear fruit
if if you will on the situation but yeah
this is actually one thing that we
wanted to buy but because of obviously
the meme of it uh but corresponding with
half a million dollars going towards
purchasing a supercomputer it just
wasn't a thing that was going to
reasonably happen had we probably had
like a month or two extra on this
auction maybe we would seriously
consider it but honestly the fact that
this thing initially started out and
like somebody put like a a bid up for
like 50 bucks
but it just evolved we all knew this was
going to sell for like six figures at
some point so again it really became a
situation of it's not really worth it to
go buy this thing even if it is for the
meme or a little bit for the content um
and honestly you were just going to get
out bit anyways by somebody that was
literally going to chop shop this thing
up and sell it for parts anyways but
yeah one of the world's uh most famous
supercomputers of will to the Cheyenne
was in news that ended up basically
being sold off and now it has become a
gutted chop chopped Legacy of computing
past but yeah supercomputers are
interesting and maybe one day we'll
build something smaller and a much
smaller scale but yeah something I
wanted to buy but ultimately time and
and and money really really prevented us
from getting access to what is
ultimately a pretty cool piece of
history that said ladies and gentlemen
yeah this is me mudahar and uh yeah I am
out
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