STEINBERGER@KL.SRI.COM (Richard Steinberger) (03/03/88)
Over the past several weeks, some coworkers and I had the task of selecting
a minisupercomputer that could be purchased for $200K or less. Ideally,
the machine should be expandable with funding increments of about $200K
as well. Sadly, but logically, we ruled out DEC from the start.
The only "supercomputing" option DEC offers in this price range is the
option to buy an FPS attached machine. The FPS model 30 is not expandable.
Other models seemed too expensive.
We have tentatively selected an Alliant with two CEs (computational
elements), 32 MB RAM and 1.1 GB disk space, a 9 track drive, Alliant's
Unix OS (they offer a DCL clone), and a DECNET end-node liscense.
Alliant's come with front end processors called interactive processors;
they are used to handle various IO, editing, and other user interfacing
tasks - I believe the actual chip currently used is a 68020.
Which leads me to describe my ideal machine: An Alliant with VAX front
end processors running VMS or UNIX. Such a computer could offer the
comfort and familiarity of a DEC environment combined with the affordable
expandable supercomputing capability of Alliant including vector and
parallel processing. Such a hybrid (some would say bastard) could easily
outperform the top SUN (4/280) with only 1 or 2 CEs or 1 ACE (Advanced
Computational Element). With 2 ACEs (Alliant is currently expandable to
8 ACEs), the machine would likely match or exceed an 8800 in most
floating point computational tasks.
An entry system could cost under $150K. The lowest price for an Alliant
is now $99K.
Has anyone else considered this kind of machine, anyone from DEC?
Flame off.
-Ric Steinberger
steinberger@kl.sri.com
-------