IP: More on Multi-Teraflops machines

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

From: "Chris Gulker" <gulker () apple com>
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Cc: agent () gulker com

Dave-

Re: teraflops

Might also be of interest: Avalon, Los Alamos' do-it-yourself Linux-based
machine is either the 144th or 88th fastest computer in the world (according
to different reports), for $300,000.

Pacific Blue is 80 times faster, but 300 times more expensive. It's probably
only a matter of time before a so-called Beowulf class computer hits a
teraflop. Beowulf, btw, is the name Caltech's Tom Sterling gives to his
architecture for do-it-yourself supercomputers like Avalon. 

There are also Windows NT ("Wolfpack") and Mac OS supercomputers doing work
at places like FermiLab and the UCLA plasma physics dept. UCLA's math dept.
is reportedly planning a "very pretty supercomputer" (a "VPS"?) using the
RISC-based iMacs in their computer lab. 

More info, links in my current fortnightly column "Do-it-yourself
Supercomputers"

    http://www.gulker.com/ra/supercomputer.html

Be interesting to see if the first home-brew teraflopper is a Net-connected
affair a la distributed.net or affair a la distributed.net or SETI@home...

Chris Gulker
cg () gulker com

----------
> From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
> To: ip-sub-1 () majordomo pobox com
> Subject: IP: Multi-Teraflops machines 
> Date: Thu, Nov 12, 1998, 10:17 AM

> From: Jim Gray <gray () MICROSOFT com>
> To: "'Dave Farber'" <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
> Dave:
> So I researched it better and here is something that can be forward:
> Jim
> ============================================================================
> ============
>
> IBM's Blue Pacific system at IBM's Poughkeepsie Lab in NY achieved 1.2 TF in
> September on a real application http://www.llnl.gov/asci/news/demo_SST.html.
> This system has 5,856 processors.
> SGI comments in their press release that Blue Pacific has not yet run
> LinPack.
>
> SGI
> http://www.sgi.com/newsroom/press_releases/1998/november/blue_mountain.html
> announced 1.6 TF on a real benchmark (LinPack).  SGI's Blue Mountain is a
> 6,114 processor system.
>
> These are both amazing numbers.
> Prior to these two machines, no one had achieved a TFLOPS on a "real"
> application.
> Indeed the "Bell Prize" winner for 1998 is only 0.6 TFLOPS so this is a 2x
> and 2.7x improvement.
>
> I am still skeptical that we will get to 100 TF by 2004, but these sure are
> good first steps!
>
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
> David Farber         
> The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems
> University of Pennsylvania 
> Home Page: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~farber