Extreme Performance for an Extreme Task

Question

Hi Everybody, this post was originally in the Mac Pro discussions, but it seemed to fit in more in the 'Xserve' discussions - as it has been established that the Xserve is better suited for this job than the Mac Pro.
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Hello,
Some of you will read this question in disbelief or think I have gone crazy (laughs), but its all entirely true - and it tied in with several large businesses plus university studies.
Imagine if you would, a space station = or to be more precise, a space hotel. Where every room was fitted with computer systems, enabling users/residents to do anything they wanted to do (listen music, view photos, watch HD video etc), and the systems powered a communications system across the station, plus monitored critically important equipment and controlled the space-craft/station.
I have established that on-board Xserve's with Xserve RAIDS would be the best option possible, but what about processor? amount of RAM? etc.. When you think, these systems will be given lots of work to do all at the same time, 24/7
I will just add, this is a university project backed by a large enterprise/business which intends to build a space hotel in the very near future.
Also I will add, Is it possible to develop a 'super-computer' with the Xserve, which is extremely powerful and can be given a heavy workload - which might be generated with the following tasks... (HD Video editing, HD video playback, AV Communications, photo and music sharing and playback, database management, plus on-board control systems inc realtime mapping and navigation etc) ??
This is, of course, a large task, and we really do want to use Apple machines and Apple's Mac OS X as we all see it as the operating system of the future.
Many Thanks,
James
(Project Researcher)

Answer 1

Hi James,
yes, it really sounds like a lot of fun and OS X seems to be a cool solution for many of the things you suggest. It is really relatively easy to program for OS X, especially if you want to show off nice little things fairly quickly (e.g. with Dashcode).
If we can dream here, I would go with the following setup: Probably Xserve + Xserve RAID on SAN as the server for entertainment purposes. This server would connect to TVs in each room via ethernet, connected to native 720p 50 inch plasma displays. The TVs are <a href"http://www.appletvhacks.net/">highly customized to be able to upload user Photos and Videos to the main system. These videos and photos would be accessible privately by the guest that has uploaded the media, and (if indicated by the guest) also publicly to other guests (e.g. in the form of a HD video podcast edited nightly by the station guest manager: "Space Station Highlights Daily Podcast. Today's episode: The earth viewed from space. Tomorrow's episode: Pro-tipps for taking sunrise photographs"). Every guest gets also a Mac Pro with Final Cut Studio 2 to do their own video editing and to encode the newest Blue-Ray disks to H.264 for viewing on the TV.
For the scientists an Xgrid of Xserves (64 nodes at least!) to evaluate their experiments immediately (for example climate modeling and DNA sequencing). For each scientist at least two 30 inch Cinema Displays. Who wants to wait to evaluate the data back on earth when you can do it immediately on the station. Additional benefit: heat generated by the servers can be used to heat the station if the station is on the dark side of planet earth. Disadvantage: computer failure due to overheating when the station gets direct sunlight.
But to be more realistic: I think a plasma screen to see the latest movies is not why people would go to a space hotel (especially if you have the breathtaking view of planet earth from your window) and if you ever want to get the station off the ground without the requirement to have a small nuclear power reactor on board, you don't want to shoot a traditional "Supercomputer" into space.
I think your approach should be a smart one, not a brute force one. Think about the exact requirements and then look for highly specialized solutions. Check how much power is available. I guess not much, everything is probably powered by battery and solar panels, maybe some radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Check how much can be transported realistically into space (volume and weight).
Use lightweight, low power devices wherever you can (flash for storage instead of hard disks, monochrome, non backlight displays for system control computers).
Think about small, energy efficient computer chips like the ones used in Apple laptops. They definitely have the computing power to control the space craft. Just look at the puny computers used in the space shuttle.
Think about networking possibilities. Have all your supercomputers earthbound and control them remotely via a network (satellite internet
Also for entertainment think about small, lightweight, energy efficient. Something like a customized iPod connected to a little larger OLED display with 640x480 resolution.
This is a much bigger challenge than just spending tons of money on energy hungry, powerful Xserves, Xserve RAIDS and 30 inch cinema displays that will never make it into space anyways.
Have fun! Lars
12" PowerBook G4 - 1.25 GB RAM - Mac Pro - 2 GB RAM -   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   - 40 GB iPod 4G