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From: benseb@grumpy.sdsc.edu (Booker Bense)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.super
Subject: Re: How you define a supercomputer ?
Message-ID: <377@nic.cerf.net>
Date: 14 May 91 18:23:00 GMT
References: <1991May12.160205.9784@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <1991May13.051215.8101@nas.nasa.gov>
Sender: news@nic.cerf.net
Organization: San Diego Supercomputer Center @ UCSD
Lines: 41

In article <1991May13.051215.8101@nas.nasa.gov> eugene@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya) writes:
>In article <1991May12.160205.9784@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
>ury@mossad.huji.ac.il (ury segal) writes:
>>How you define a supercomputer ? ( >100 MIPS ???)
>
>You have to ask the United States Department of Commerce.
>

- I think this list should just about cover it %-)!

A supercomputer has the following characteristics:

- Lots of memory, but not quite enough to run your problem.

- It should be difficult to program. Assembly is the prefered
language of supercomputers. Fortran or C compilers are acceptable,
any machine with a lisp compiler can not be a supercomputer. 

- The ablity to run the LINPACK benchmark at near the maximum speed
after months of massaging assembly routines. The inablity to run 
portable code at greater than 1/10th the machine speed. 

- Non portable language extensions are a must.!!! Any code that is
optimized for one machine should require several months to get running
on any other supercomputer. 

- Frequent crashes just as your job is finishing up it's output. 

- Of course , we can't forget I/O bottlenecks. 

- Hundreds / thousands of users competing for cpu time. 

- Cryptic operating systems. Or if they use a commonly available one
it should be at least 2-3 revisions behind what you are used to. 

 
REMEMBER, this is a joke !!!!

- Booker C. Bense                    
prefered: benseb@grumpy.sdsc.edu	"I think it's GOOD that everyone 
NeXT Mail: benseb@next.sdsc.edu 	   becomes food " - Hobbes