“AMD’s 3DNow technology was designed to improve the 3D graphics
of games. But the feature can also be used to speed up mathematical
calculations, said Hank Dietz, a professor at the University of
Kentucky and the architect of a new 64-processor Linux
supercomputer built out of 700-MHz AMD Athlon microprocessors.”
“The machine, called the Kentucky Linux Athlon Testbed 2
(KLAT2), is a “Beowulf” computer, a collection of smaller computers
networked together to throw their collective might at a single
computational task. Each of the nodes of such machines typically
runs the Linux operating system, a clone of Unix that’s popular in
academia because it can be tweaked as much as a researcher
wants.”
“KLAT2 isn’t very powerful compared with some Beowulf
systems. But it’s only a step on a path to greater glory for AMD
and the University of Kentucky’s computing program. Within the next
year, Dietz expects his university will have made a supercomputer
with at least 1,000 processors and perhaps as many as
4,000.”