A Super Army Surplus Deal

If you are, by chance, in the market for a supercomputer (and we know most of you are), the Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, Miss., has one for you. You're just going to need a lot of room.

The Army's Engineering Research and Development Center's Information Technology Laboratory is selling its Compaq SC45, which fills 24 cabinets, has 512 processors and can perform about 1 trillion calculations per second. In November, the lab purchased a Cray XT3 supercomputer that can perform 40 trillion calculations per second. The Army needs to make room for another supercomputer that will perform twice that many calculations, according to an article in The Vicksburg Post.

The lab uses the computers to model, design and test locks, dams and jet engines, and model the aging and stress on metals.

The supercomputer is a steal. The lab bought the supercomputer in 2001 for $4 million. Your cost? Just the cost to move it. The computer will be given away on a first-come, first-served policy. But you may want to hurry. The lab says it already has had one prospect asking about the computer.