COLSA today announced the purchase of 1566 dual processor 1U rack-mount 64-bit Xserve G5 servers from Apple to build a new supercomputer, which it expects to be one of the fastest in the world. The supercomputer, named MACH 5, is expected to deliver a peak performance capability of more than 25 TFlops/second at a cost of $5.8 million and will be used to model the complex aero-thermodynamics of hypersonic flight for the US Army. The Xserve G5 supercluster system is expected to be on-line and working for the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) division of the US Army Research and Development Command by late Fall.

"We expect MACH 5 to rank as one of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet," said Dr Anthony DiRienzo, executive vice president at COLSA Corporation. "According to the November 2003 Top 500 supercomputer list, it would rank second only to Japan's $350 million Earth Simulator computer at less than two percent of the cost. We evaluated PC-based proposals from other vendors but none came close to delivering either the price, performance or manageability of the Apple Xserve G5."