If you’ve been thinking about purchasing a new supercomputer but have been waiting for a good price, now might be a good time to place your bid. The US government is currently auctioning off the Cheyenne supercomputer to the highest bidder through GSA Auctions with three days to go. Although we haven’t tested this device ourselves yet, we assume that with its 145,152 CPU cores it will significantly exceed the performance of our current top notebook. You also don’t have to upgrade the RAM so quickly, as a full 313,344 GB of RAM is currently installed and the storage capacity is around 36 petabytes. You don’t have to delete files to make room for new games or other media downloads.
GSA Auctions
Get your hands on one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers at the US government auction at a price well below the list price.
$28,000 at GSA Auctions
The deal was discovered by Ars Technica, which also note that fiber optic and CAT5/6 cabling are not included in the sale. Although the price the government paid for the supercomputer has not been disclosed, it is safe to assume that the cost was in the millions of dollars considering the prices of other supercomputers. As of this writing, the bid is at $28,085, even though the reserve requirement has not yet been reached. There are still three days left and no deposit is currently required to place a bid.
The reason for such a large discount (aside from the fact that Cheyenne was taken out of service) could be faulty quick-connectors that cause water splashes and the fact that about one percent of the nodes have “failed” and “remain unrepaired.” Another caveat to keep in mind before you start making space in your arena-sized air-conditioned garage is that shipping is not included in the price. As GSA Auctions notes on the details page, “Moving this system requires hiring a professional moving company” and “Buyer assumes responsibility for transferring racks from facility to trucks.”
But where else can you get such big savings on a machine that can perform 5.34 quadrillion calculations per second? Cheyenne is also surprisingly energy efficient, using 25 percent less energy per calculation than its predecessor, Yellowstone. The giant supercomputer helped researchers understand the rapid intensification of hurricanes, how wildfires affect air quality, and simulated years of climate features to predict outcomes decades in advance. It should definitely give you enough processing power for extreme multitasking at work while also handling even the most demanding games after hours.
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