BusinessWeek reports that Virginia Tech is building a supercomputer comprised of 1100 new 64-bit G5’s. Surprisingly, Apple’s ‘low cost’ was a determining factor, as Business Week writes: What attracted them was the G5’s unique architecture. It uses dual processors to reach processing speeds up to 2 gigahertz. Virginia Tech scientists didn’t care whether that was the fastest to date — it was plenty fast for their purposes. They figured that if they strapped 1,100 G5s together, they could amass enough computing muscle to handle the massive calculations necessary for nanosecond electronics and computational chemistry. In short, they would have a world-class supercomputer. And they would have it for chicken feed, relatively speaking. The Mac cluster will cost no more than $5.2 million, which is “quite modest,” according to Tech officials. To save more money, the university is recruiting students to help set up 19.25 tons of computers, routers, and other equipment. It’s a huge win for Apple’s enterprise ambitions, and further validates InfoWorld’s assertion since 2002 that Apple’s become a true enterprise player. And in case you missed it, Tom Yager recently wrote a cover story on Apple in the enterprise. Technology Industry