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From: bzs@bu-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Gould NP1
Message-ID: <6123@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: Sat, 4-Apr-87 12:34:17 EST
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.6123
Posted: Sat Apr  4 12:34:17 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 5-Apr-87 11:12:16 EST
References: <505@sw1e.UUCP> <110@hippo.UUCP>
Organization: Boston U. Comp. Sci.
Lines: 46
In-reply-to: eric@hippo.UUCP's message of 3 Apr 87 16:53:56 GMT
Posting-Front-End: GNU Emacs 18.41.4 of Mon Mar 23 1987 on bu-cs (berkeley-unix)


I believe that a factor almost more important than comparing where
current machines are is to investigate where their vendors are going.
The "mips" game is changing so rapidly that I for one tend to demand
some outline of a vendor's game plan for the next (very) few years.

A rule of thumb I am using right now is that vendors must be able to
present to me the following clearly defined paths:

	1. Workstations - dozens of mips
	2. Super-minis - 100ish mips (with small numbers of processors)
	3. Larger scale parallel systems - to 1000 mips or more, w/o voodoo.
	4. Mainframes, super-computers - hard to say, Cray-II's are
	a good baseline, as in "when will you acheive Cray performance
	for 1/X the cost?". I/O and Floating Point performance is the
	issue here as much as raw CPU system performancs.

Some good examples:

Sun and Iris (MIPS) are indicating clear paths to double-digit mips
in the very near future in the workstation arena.

Systems like the Elxsi and Encore look like they have a clear path
to three-digits for their "mainline" products in the near future.

Encore's DARPA sponsored project is promised to deliver four-digits
(1000+ mips) within two years on a generic (ie. UNIX based) parallel
processor system.

Alliant seems to be moving towards "cheap" crayitude (a mere couple of
million $$, that would be cheap, I am not being sarcastic.) Some of
the new IBM3090 series are also moving in the right direction
(although the software still leaves lots to be desired.)

I think the real problem will soon be finding ways to keep them busy.

I heard that Shearson-Lehman has two Crays? So much for some
three-letter companies "business" strategies and loss of interest
in high performance machines.

Oh well, it's refreshing every so often to retune your brain.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with any of the above companies
except as the owner of 4 Encores, a multitude of SUNs and 2 3090s.