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From: eugene@nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.super
Subject: Re: How you define a supercomputer ?
Message-ID: <1991May14.202143.25838@nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 14 May 91 20:21:43 GMT
References: <1991May12.160205.9784@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <1991May13.051215.8101@nas.nasa.gov> <377@nic.cerf.net>
Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov
Reply-To: eugene@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center
Lines: 85

In article <377@nic.cerf.net> benseb@grumpy.sdsc.edu (Booker Bense) writes
a very funny article:
>>In article <1991May12.160205.9784@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
>>ury@mossad.huji.ac.il (ury segal) writes:
>>>How you define a supercomputer ? ( >100 MIPS ???)

He probably asked this in all seriousness.
	"The fastest machine(s) at any given point in time." --S.F.

There is also the paper "'Supercomputer' is just a marketing term."

%A Sidney Fernbach, ed.
%T Supercomputers, Class VI Systems, Hardware and Software
%I North-Holland
%D 1986
%K book, text, cray, cdc cyber, data flow, NEC SX-2, Fujitsu VP-200,
Hitachi 810/20, vector processing,
%X A collection of papers surveying existing computer architectures
rather than newer proposed supercomputer architectures.
%X A book from one of the men who set up the "Class system" of the DOE.

I answered (only half serious):
>>You have to ask the United States Department of Commerce.

I posted this because of the author's "il" address.  It harkens back to
a chance meeting in which I gave DEC's Washington DC lawyer a ride
in Yosemite.  Seems she wanted to sell a VAX 9000 to IL.  DOC said
the 9000 was a supercomputer.  DOD apparently didn't think it was.
"Was I willing to say the VAX 9000 was not a super computer?" "So it
(the 9000) the fastest machine around?"

DOC won.  So I guess IL is getting a SUPRENUM.  And this story is what I
get for giving two hitchhikers a ride.  So I guess the 9000 is a supercomputer
in the eyes of the DOC, and Sid Fernbach's definition was wrong.
So the answer still stands: that you have to ask the US DOC.

Added featuritis:

>- 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.

- Virtual memory?  What's that?
  [One could make jokes about parity....]

>- 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. 

This gets rid of Wayne Anderson's Portable Standard Lisp efforts.
Does this disqualify the TMC CM line?

>- 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. 

Exotic new languages are acceptable. (excepting LISP)

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

Exotic new hardware technology: cooling, packaging, etc.

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

	The Batcher definition.  ("A Supercomputer is any machine
	which turns a CPU bound job into an I/O bound job.")

>- 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 !!!!

It was funny!  I hope you keep the amended list and post it regularly.

--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov
  Resident Cynic, Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers
  {uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene