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From: marvit@hplabsc.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Re: big memories, who needs >~1G
Message-ID: <50400001@hplabsc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Mar-87 16:49:00 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.50400001
Posted: Sat Mar 21 16:49:00 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Mar-87 05:40:25 EST
References: <506@thumper.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories - Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 22

<Regarding extremely large memories >

A private study last of current and future users of supercomputers asked
a number of interesting questions.  Pertinent to this discussion --
what is the most important attribute for improving the supercomputing
environment?

The suprising answer?  Not more horsepower nor better floating point/vector
operations, nor lower power consumption.  Bigger memory topped the list 
(with faster being far behind).  Would anyone who works with these monsters
(Eugene?) care to comment?

Peter Marvit
HP Labs
marvit@hplabs.hp.com

P.S. I know for LISP work, large stretches of memory reduces the need for
time consuming incremental garbage collects, and sure speeds up the 
stop and copy GC!  On my workstation 8MB real memory was painful with
a 30+ MB virtual image.  With 48MB real memory and a 40+ MB virtual image,
I blink and the GC is done!  Hooray for brute force and lots of real
estate!