gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu (01/03/90)
I think that performance/price is a stupid metric for supercomputers. Your lifetime is a very fixed resource. Why do we all drive cars? A cheap car costs $8000 and goes 65 mph. But a decent bicycle costs $400 and goes 12 mph (with minimal effort). Therefore, the relative price/kilobuck ratios are: Car: 65/8 = 8.125 MPHs/Kbuck Bike: 12/.4 = 30 MPHs/Kbuck Obviously, bicycles enjoy a 3.5* better performance/price ratio, and we haven't even considered the health benefits. So why do most people drive cars? I see two reasons. First, cars have a higher I/O rate (you can put a whole load of groceries in a car, and 3 children too). But that is not the main reason. The main reason is that the old adage "time is money" is false. ---> Time is money^2