fouts@garth.ingr.com (Martin Fouts) (08/21/89)
Before the marketing folk got their hands on the word, supercomputer was a superlative adjective that was time sensitive. At any one time there was only one supercomputer and it was always the *fastest* system around. Also, the only thing being measured in those days was flops, since supercomputers were only for engineering calculations. Life was so much easier when I was young. Now, anything that is fastest in its class by some marketing criteria is a '* supercomputer' with * replaced by such words as desktop and departmental. Having spent six years playing with supercomputers by the earlier definition, my own personal definition is: 1) If costs more to run it for a month than it costs to buy the average system sold in the industry or 2) If more space is required for support hardware like chillers and motor generator sets than for the computer system itself its this year's supercomputers. Some US machines which were considered supercomputers in their time, but aren't anymore, include the IBM 7090 (Stretch,) which may have been the first; the CDC 6600 and 7600, the Cray 1, X/MP, 2 and Y/MP (in order of introduction,) and the CDC Cyber 203 and 205. Amazing how many of those machines were designed by Seymour Cray. Alternative definition: A supercomputer is a machine designed by Seymour Cray; or a machine designed to compete in the marketplace with a machine designed by Seymour Cray. Marty -- Martin Fouts UUCP: ...!pyramid!garth!fouts ARPA: garth!fouts@ingr.com PHONE: (415) 852-2310 FAX: (415) 856-9224 MAIL: 2400 Geng Road, Palo Alto, CA, 94303 I'll say something clever, as soon as I get some caffeine in my blood stream -- Martin Fouts UUCP: ...!pyramid!garth!fouts ARPA: garth!fouts@ingr.com PHONE: (415) 852-2310 FAX: (415) 856-9224 MAIL: 2400 Geng Road, Palo Alto, CA, 94303 I'll say something clever, as soon as I get some caffeine in my blood stream
kaiser@cheese.enet.dec.com (08/23/89)
In article <3217@garth.UUCP>, fouts@garth.ingr.com (Martin Fouts) writes... | Life was so much easier when I was young. | ... | Some US machines which were considered supercomputers in their time, | but aren't anymore, include the IBM 7090 (Stretch,) which may have | been the first... You're still young (lucky you), young enough at any rate to know that Stretch was the IBM 7030, which predated the 7090. Its design is the subject of an excellent book "Planning a Computer System", edited by Werner Bucholz. Last time I looked at it, it wasn't dated, and it's superbly readable. ---Pete kaiser@cheese.enet.dec.com DEC, 2 Mt. Royal Ave. (UPO1-3), Marlboro MA 01752-9108 508-480-4345 (machine: 617-641-3450)