Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ll-xn!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!walton
From: walton@tybalt.caltech.edu (Steve Walton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga: Which replacment OS?/UN*X ??
Message-ID: <3066@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: Sun, 21-Jun-87 00:27:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: cit-vax.3066
Posted: Sun Jun 21 00:27:41 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 22-Jun-87 05:59:08 EDT
References: <8706191429.AA20219@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Reply-To: walton@tybalt.caltech.edu (Steve Walton)
Followup-To: comp.arch
Organization: Calfornia Institute of Technology
Lines: 30

In article <8706191429.AA20219@cory.Berkeley.EDU> dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon) writes:
>>yeah, I guess I wasn't thinking about 10 years later. I suppose
>>I could buy something then - a 64 bit CPU!! :-) maybe I ought to wait
>>for a 64 bit bus :-) :-) :-) :-).
>
>	Oh No!  You're thinking about it all wrong.  The trend of the future
>is to have multi-processor machines to get the power.  For instance, a real
>live machine in existance right now is the CONNECTION machine, made up of
>a large number (65536) single bit processors.  This baby outperforms a 
>Cray II!
>
>				-Matt


While, as an employee of AMETEK Computer Research Division, I agree
that multiprocessors have great potential (we make hypercubes, aka
Cosmic Cubes), the power of the Connection Machine is greatly
exaggerated.  Its speed is as high as Matt says only when all 64K
processors are running at the same time.  Most problems only run a few
hundred of them at a time (there's only a few K of memory per
processor, so they can't run anything very sophisticated).  The Intel
iPSC hypercube, the NCUBE, and the FPS T series all run faster than
the CM on real problems, notwithstanding the recent article in SciAm
by the president and founder of the company which makes the CM.

I've directed followups to comp.arch.

    Steve Walton, guest as walton@tybalt.caltech.edu
    AMETEK Computer Research Division, ametek!walton@csvax.caltech.edu
"Long signatures are definitely frowned upon"--USENET posting rules