Virginia Tech said on Tuesday that it will upgrade its “X” supercomputer built from 1,100 Power Mac G5s with Apple’s recently introduced Xserve G5 1U servers. The new system will be completed by May for an undetermined cost. Using the thinner Xserves “cuts the system’s size down by a factor of three,” Srinidhi Varadarajan, assistant professor of computer science, college of engineering, at Virginia Tech said. “The new system will take much less power and generate less heat and free up space.” The current supercomputer occupies 3,000 square feet. After the upgrade to 1,100 Xserves, the system will occupy 1,000 square feet.