[vishnu]

Just for funzies I often look at the list of the top 500 supercomputers in the world, today at number 168 is the HPE/SGI 8600, the HPE link takes a long time to load, so be patient:

https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/a00016640enw

EDIT: Note that on the front panel, all it says is SGI, tellingly not HPE. And (as I'm so fond of pointing out), the vast majority of the SMP code running in the Top 500 is SGI based.

[Intuition]

AT the bottom of the doc.. it says Dec 2023... so HP is using SGI tech and branding after purchasing it?

Wow.
Truth is stranger than fiction.

What would someone do with it though? Make some A.i. music?

[vishnu]

 someone do with it though? Make some A.i. music?

Actually, the page on what they're doing with it is kind of interesting, link:

www.nasa.gov/ames/core-area-of-expertise-supercomputing

At my place of employ, we use the supercomputing cluster at the University of Minnesota to model the uptake ablation for the Navy's M41 vertical launch system, link:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_41_vertical_launching_system

[jan-jaap]

Pleiades is still in the Top 500 (#218 as of June 2025).

It's been upgraded a couple of times, but considering it's been in operation since 2008 it's quite impressive.

There's currently an Altix ICE 8200 rack on eBay that could well have originated from it or at least a similar system. There's still a ton of Infiniband fiber hanging from it that you can also see in the Pleiades system

[Intuition]

Pretty cool Vishnu, I was kidding of course... since I have no idea what superclusters do these days besides power Midjourney or other Ai "ventures".

I do like the look of the server with the color lines. Almost as if someone was trying to nod to old SGI.

[vishnu]

NCSA has a comprehensive list of the projects they're working on, pretty interesting really:

ncsa.illinois.edu/research/project-highlights

[rutger]

The seller on EBay with the Altix has quite some SGI big boxes for sale. Even two Onyx’es. Nice!

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The seller on EBay with the Altix has quite some SGI big boxes for sale. Even two Onyx’es. Nice!

Local pickup only.

[jeffwa]

8600 = SGI's ICE XA and was either finished, or darn close when HPE acquired SGI.  HPE then re-branded it "HPE SGI 8600".  It was the last pure SGI HPC product that HPE didn't meddle with.  It was a solid product and there's still a lot of them floating around out in the wild.  Their only weakness is they tend to leak in their old age (blind mate QD's stick), a prime example being Cheyenne @ NCAR which was recently auctioned off with "maintenance issues".

[vishnu]

8600 = SGI's ICE XA and was either finished, or darn close when HPE acquired SGI.  HPE then re-branded it "HPE SGI 8600".  It was the last pure SGI HPC product that HPE didn't meddle with.  It was a solid product and there's still a lot of them floating around out in the wild.  Their only weakness is they tend to leak in their old age (blind mate QD's stick), a prime example being Cheyenne @ NCAR which was recently auctioned off with "maintenance issues".

Good video of them putting it together here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8mzKSJkeqI