The reason according to Paul Henning (who was involved with its design at LANL) was:
https://twitter.com/paul_henning/status/317764267531177984 # it was running for over five years which is about the cost/benefit # tipping pt for #hpc systems. In my experience, I would agree with that. Normal maintenance contracts cover three years, and of course vendors will extend them. At about that timeframe though: Parts become more difficult to source The OS which was int he original install is probably getting old - so do you re0image the whole thing, or consider its replacement? Disk drives are larger - so the storage is looking small now The server room investment in fit-out, electrical feeds and cooling is still functioning - you have to start asking if the floor space is better used on another system. Fit-out in a server room will outlast several generations of HPC kit. Class, discuss The contents of this email are confidential and for the exclusive use of the intended recipient. If you receive this email in error you should not copy it, retransmit it, use it or disclose its contents but should return it to the sender immediately and delete your copy. _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf