Definitely a completely different support contract than a consumer console. That sounds more like an amortization of how many consoles they’d need to support that large of a system for the life of the contract.
Could also be the rake you pay to the company who will sell you hardware on terms with a PO.
Company I worked for in the past had a significant line of business with a major post prod company in the valley that was just buying hundreds of DVD players off ebay at a 20% mark up and then drop shipping them.
There's tons of companies and government agencies that cant just send someone to bestbuy with a visa to make purchases. Has to be a preapproved vendor and has to be on at least net 30 terms and purchased via PO. There's a premium to be paid to companies/vendors that can work within your companies processes to quickly get you what you need to not block projects.
Also, if you run the math in the article you linked, it may suggest they paid more than list price.
> core made of 1,760 Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles
> the PS3s for the supercomputer's core cost about $2 million
that's $1,136 per unit.