Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!lamaster
From: lamaster@ames.arpa (Hugh LaMaster)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Editing on Crays
Message-ID: <5381@ames.arpa>
Date: 1 Mar 88 03:19:52 GMT
References: <9495@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP> <3815@megaron.arizona.edu> <235@amelia.nas.nasa.gov> <416@micropen> <5288@ames.arpa>
Reply-To: lamaster@ames.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Hugh LaMaster)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Lines: 11

Editing on Crays is not as far fetched or sacrilegious as most people seem to
assume.  A few years ago during one presentation I saw someone claimed that
Crays were the most cost effective editing machines available.  I believe it
was true then.  It was also true then that the available supercomputers were
very cost effective for scalar computing in general (relative to the 
alternatives, such as VAXes and IBM's).  Advances is microprocessors make
this untrue today, but even so don't assume that it is cheaper to ship
a file across a network than to edit it locally.  Supercomputers can even be
cost effective as database processors (talking about very "
ADPish" sorts of activities).  They also happen to compute floating point
problems quickly.  Now, if we could do something about supercomputer
software (actually, we are ...>