Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!seibel
From: seibel@cgl.ucsf.edu (George Seibel)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: ATTACK OF KILLER MICROS
Message-ID: <12070@cgl.ucsf.EDU>
Date: 16 Oct 89 11:00:42 GMT
References: <35825@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
Sender: daemon@cgl.ucsf.edu
Reply-To: seibel@cgl.ucsf.edu (George Seibel)
Organization: Computer Graphics Lab, UCSF
Lines: 18

In <35825@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> brooks@maddog.llnl.gov wrote:
> The best of the microprocessors now EXCEED supercomputers for scalar
> performance and the performance of microprocessors is not yet stagnant.
> On scalar codes, commodity microprocessors ARE the fastest machines at
> any price and custom cpu architectures are doomed in this market.

   Speaking of "commodities", I think a lot of people have lost sight
of, or perhaps never recognized something about the vast majority of
supercomputers.  They are shared.   How often do you get a Cray processor
all to yourself?  Not very often, unless you have lots of money, or Uncle
Sam is picking up the tab so you can design atomic bombs faster.   As
soon as you have more than one job per processor, you're talking about
*commodity Mflops*.  The issue is no longer performance at any cost, because
if it was you would order another machine at that point.   The important
thing is Mflops/dollar for most people, and that's where the micros are
going to win in a lot of cases.

George Seibel, UCSF