1995 Observation on Supercomputing Alternative: Did the MPP Bandwagon Lead to a Cul-de-Sac?
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| Title: | 1995 Observation on Supercomputing Alternative: Did the MPP Bandwagon Lead to a Cul-de-Sac? |
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| Authors: | Bell, Gordon1 |
| Source: | Communications of the ACM. Mar1996, Vol. 39 Issue 3, p11-15. 5p. |
| Subjects: | Supercomputers, Cray computers, Commercial markets, Computer systems, Integrated circuits |
| Geographic Terms: | United States |
| Abstract: | This article presents 1995 observation on supercomputing alternatives in the U.S. The government and the technical computing community focused on achieving a teraflop-speed supercomputer. The goal reached in 1996 in a much more dramatic fashion than predicted because it was based on PC technology. Furthermore, by clustering PCs using System Area Nets (SANs), scalable computing was widely available at low cost. During 1995, Cray Research, Fujitsu, IBM, Intel, NEC, and Silicon Graphics introduced, new technical computers. Intel announced the P6, a PC-compatible chip with a peak advertised performance (PAP) of lS3Mflops to be raised to 266Mflops. In September, Sandia ordered a $45.6 million, 9,072 processor, 1.8lGflops computer using the chip scheduled to be installed in November 1996 that will provide S9Kflops/dollar or 1.2Tflops at the $30 million supercomputer price in 1989. Adjusting for inflation allows the 1996 supercomputer price to rise to $40 million and gets 1.6Tflops. Compaq Computer and Tandem Computers announced scalable computer clusters based on P6 for the commercial market. |
| Database: | Engineering Source |
| Abstract: | This article presents 1995 observation on supercomputing alternatives in the U.S. The government and the technical computing community focused on achieving a teraflop-speed supercomputer. The goal reached in 1996 in a much more dramatic fashion than predicted because it was based on PC technology. Furthermore, by clustering PCs using System Area Nets (SANs), scalable computing was widely available at low cost. During 1995, Cray Research, Fujitsu, IBM, Intel, NEC, and Silicon Graphics introduced, new technical computers. Intel announced the P6, a PC-compatible chip with a peak advertised performance (PAP) of lS3Mflops to be raised to 266Mflops. In September, Sandia ordered a $45.6 million, 9,072 processor, 1.8lGflops computer using the chip scheduled to be installed in November 1996 that will provide S9Kflops/dollar or 1.2Tflops at the $30 million supercomputer price in 1989. Adjusting for inflation allows the 1996 supercomputer price to rise to $40 million and gets 1.6Tflops. Compaq Computer and Tandem Computers announced scalable computer clusters based on P6 for the commercial market. |
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| ISSN: | 00010782 |
| DOI: | 10.1145/227234.227235 |
