Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen
From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: New Intel mutliprocessor machine?
Message-ID: <1995@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: 10 Jan 90 16:48:15 GMT
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen)
Organization: GE Corp R&D Center
Lines: 29


  I see that Intel has announced the IPSC-860, another mutliprocessor
system which will purportedly will deliver 7.6 GFLOP. For $265k you get
8 CPUs, 64MB, and a claimed 480 MFLOP. The front end runs V.3 and the
main system NX-2 (UNIX based).

                         Thoughts and questions

  Okay, the entry price is fine, I've optioned Sun workstations out
higher than that... some questions come to mind, though.

  1. What is NX-2, and does the world need another unix derivative?

  2. How much do the compilers do to parallelize applications to use the
system power?

  3. What languages are available, and of the languages available which
support parallization and which are just there? ie. is this just a
FORTRAN package with uniprocessor C, etc.

  4. Which flavor of FORTRAN (F77 F88) and C (K&R ANSI) does it speak?

  So, has anybody been a silent beta site, and can you release some real
information now? I saw two articles, and neither indicated availability.
-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
"The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called
'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see
that the world is flat!" - anon