Each (cluster compute) instance has 2 quad core processors. The machine on the Top 500 list has 7040 cores. So at 8 cores per instance (880 total instances) and $1.60/hr per instance, that comes to $1408.0/hr to run this machine.
No idea how that compares to other machines on the list. You would really need a TCO analysis.
When I run our 250 node EC2 cluster of small instances (around $25/hr) I get nervous that it won't shut down properly. $1400/hr would be pretty nerve wracking...
They have compute nodes with GPUs. From their website:
22 GB of memory
33.5 EC2 Compute Units (2 x Intel Xeon X5570, quad-core “Nehalem” architecture)
2 x NVIDIA Tesla “Fermi” M2050 GPUs
1690 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: Very High (10 Gigabit Ethernet)
API name: cg1.4xlarge
So they have new awesome Fermi GPUs but the instances cost $0.50 more per hour than the standard HPC compute nodes. Generally exciting for anyone with GPU code and the desire to run on a cluster.
No idea how that compares to other machines on the list. You would really need a TCO analysis.
When I run our 250 node EC2 cluster of small instances (around $25/hr) I get nervous that it won't shut down properly. $1400/hr would be pretty nerve wracking...