I have the privilege of working with Cray systems, as well as working for a company that was owned at one point by Cray and then by SGI. We're an independant company now, but we still hear plenty of things from down in Eagan, MN (Cray HQ)... (We're a private supercomputing firm, where we sell time on supercomputers to companies that need time on the systems without wanting to foot the bill for owning and operating the beasts.)
In my experience, Cray MPP systems are worth every penny of their performance. I'm doing research on Beowulf clusters right now, and I'm finding that no matter how many processors you add to it, no matter what magic you weave with the networking, its not going to match the performance of a Cray T3E.
Crays will continue to have a market, where people need to run LARGE applications (we do a hell of a lot of seismic data processing... hundreds of gigabytes of data are going through our T3E-900) at high speed. Beowulfs will have their market too, where people need to run large applications at a lower speed for a lower cost.
In my opinion, the Cray/SGI merger should never have happened. Hopefully, the company that looks to be buying Cray won't drive it into the shitter (they had bought Thinking Machines when they went under... look where they are now), and they'll get back into the market. Dust off and update the plans for the T3F, maybe introduce a lower-cost MPP system to bridge the gap between Beowulfs and the T3E.
At any rate, we're not getting rid of our Crays for a long, long time.:)
Please note, I am not speaking for the company I work for in any capacity whatsoever, I'm not even going to name them. If you want to buy supercomputing time, however, do drop an email...
According to international law, the UN, etc. etc... the Moon is not owned by any one entity, and therefore, having someone "selling" territory on it is impossible.
Its all kinda pointless until we actually manage to actually establish a viable colony, anyway...
I had an idea for a live-cargo rail launching system... I don't know how feasible it is, and I don't really have the engineering skill to see if it is or not.
First, find a good sized, somewhat geologically stable mountain range. Bore a hole at an angle some 10-20km deep, and install an industrial-strength maglev system along it. At the end of the hole, scrape out a large enough area for launch control, cargo loading, passenger terminal, etc., and drill out land-access tunnels.
The launch vehicle would require an amount of aerodynamic design... since in combination to the maglev system, it would also have a pair of regular rocket engines. Once the vehicle exits the maglev tube and reaches the top of its flight arc, the engines would fire and kick it into orbit. Return is simply a matter of re-entry and landing at a normal airstrip, which could be built close to the launch base. Tow the vehicle back to the base, gas up, off it goes again.
Please, feel free to punch holes in this idea... also feel free to help it along.:)
Amount of material required to 'bootstrap' a base (initial domes, regolith mining, oxygen generation, hydroponics, metal smelting, etc.), plus the amount of food, water, and non-native gases that would need to be shipped until the base was self-sufficent...
...multiplied by the launch cost per pound. What is that sitting at right now? A thousand dollars, more?
Its prohibitively expensive. Too expensive for the US Government, too expensive for a group of corporations... certainly too damn expensive for a private organisation.
Now, if Artemis was serious, they'd start getting money poured into a cheap, high-capacity launch system... a rail launcher, for example. Once LEO travel is down under $100/pound, corporations and organisations are going to be tripping over themselves to colonise the moon.
That will be the point where the government starts passing inane laws trying to stop it or maintain control over it... ah well. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by R.A.Heinlein is a good read for _that_.:)
I currently work for Network Computing Services, a supercomputing center in Minneapolis that used to be part of Cray. A few months ago, we shut off our Cray-2, which use dimmersion cooling: all the components were submerged in florinert that was kept at around 45 degrees farenheit.
Modern Crays just run coolant through metal plates, which cool the chips. Its amusing to think that Cray T3Es are just piles of DEC Alphas hooked together.
You all would do well to look up the history of Seymour Cray and his systems, for a nice perspective on cooling and overclocking.:)
I forget who told me this, once upon a time... "once its been proven on paper, it becomes merely an engineering problem".
More corporations need to get together and start investing millions into independent research labs, where they're NOT expected to produce results immediately. Raw science, more research into highly advanced projects. Wonderful stuff can happen. We could see a working warp drive in our lifetimes, given the time and resources.
Of course, I'm taking the "how things should be" view again, rather than "how things are"... keeps me from getting depressed, though.
It doesn't matter if you don't have any kids. It is in every taxpaying citizens best interest to keep tabs on what is going on in our schools. We need to make sure that they are producing viable new citizens... not drones or hoodlums.
You'll need to find out your local school board address, though... or provide me with a link with a list of them, and I'll post it on the website.
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In my experience, Cray MPP systems are worth every penny of their performance. I'm doing research on Beowulf clusters right now, and I'm finding that no matter how many processors you add to it, no matter what magic you weave with the networking, its not going to match the performance of a Cray T3E.
Crays will continue to have a market, where people need to run LARGE applications (we do a hell of a lot of seismic data processing... hundreds of gigabytes of data are going through our T3E-900) at high speed. Beowulfs will have their market too, where people need to run large applications at a lower speed for a lower cost.
In my opinion, the Cray/SGI merger should never have happened. Hopefully, the company that looks to be buying Cray won't drive it into the shitter (they had bought Thinking Machines when they went under... look where they are now), and they'll get back into the market. Dust off and update the plans for the T3F, maybe introduce a lower-cost MPP system to bridge the gap between Beowulfs and the T3E.
At any rate, we're not getting rid of our Crays for a long, long time. :)
Please note, I am not speaking for the company I work for in any capacity whatsoever, I'm not even going to name them. If you want to buy supercomputing time, however, do drop an email...
According to international law, the UN, etc. etc... the Moon is not owned by any one entity, and therefore, having someone "selling" territory on it is impossible.
Its all kinda pointless until we actually manage to actually establish a viable colony, anyway...
My question is... will the Transmeta processor allow you to compile directly for the "core" instruction set? Emulation is all fine and good, but... :)
I had an idea for a live-cargo rail launching system... I don't know how feasible it is, and I don't really have the engineering skill to see if it is or not.
:)
First, find a good sized, somewhat geologically stable mountain range. Bore a hole at an angle some 10-20km deep, and install an industrial-strength maglev system along it. At the end of the hole, scrape out a large enough area for launch control, cargo loading, passenger terminal, etc., and drill out land-access tunnels.
The launch vehicle would require an amount of aerodynamic design... since in combination to the maglev system, it would also have a pair of regular rocket engines. Once the vehicle exits the maglev tube and reaches the top of its flight arc, the engines would fire and kick it into orbit. Return is simply a matter of re-entry and landing at a normal airstrip, which could be built close to the launch base. Tow the vehicle back to the base, gas up, off it goes again.
Please, feel free to punch holes in this idea... also feel free to help it along.
The answer is quite simple:
:)
Amount of material required to 'bootstrap' a base (initial domes, regolith mining, oxygen generation, hydroponics, metal smelting, etc.), plus the amount of food, water, and non-native gases that would need to be shipped until the base was self-sufficent...
...multiplied by the launch cost per pound. What is that sitting at right now? A thousand dollars, more?
Its prohibitively expensive. Too expensive for the US Government, too expensive for a group of corporations... certainly too damn expensive for a private organisation.
Now, if Artemis was serious, they'd start getting money poured into a cheap, high-capacity launch system... a rail launcher, for example. Once LEO travel is down under $100/pound, corporations and organisations are going to be tripping over themselves to colonise the moon.
That will be the point where the government starts passing inane laws trying to stop it or maintain control over it... ah well. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by R.A.Heinlein is a good read for _that_.
First it was cabinetmaker, then plumber... :)
:)
I currently work for Network Computing Services, a supercomputing center in Minneapolis that used to be part of Cray. A few months ago, we shut off our Cray-2, which use dimmersion cooling: all the components were submerged in florinert that was kept at around 45 degrees farenheit.
Modern Crays just run coolant through metal plates, which cool the chips. Its amusing to think that Cray T3Es are just piles of DEC Alphas hooked together.
You all would do well to look up the history of Seymour Cray and his systems, for a nice perspective on cooling and overclocking.
I forget who told me this, once upon a time... "once its been proven on paper, it becomes merely an engineering problem".
More corporations need to get together and start investing millions into independent research labs, where they're NOT expected to produce results immediately. Raw science, more research into highly advanced projects. Wonderful stuff can happen. We could see a working warp drive in our lifetimes, given the time and resources.
Of course, I'm taking the "how things should be" view again, rather than "how things are"... keeps me from getting depressed, though.
http://www.visi.com/~epowell/concerned. html
It doesn't matter if you don't have any kids. It is in every taxpaying citizens best interest to keep tabs on what is going on in our schools. We need to make sure that they are producing viable new citizens... not drones or hoodlums.
You'll need to find out your local school board address, though... or provide me with a link with a list of them, and I'll post it on the website.
Admit it, CmdrTaco... you just wanted to put the word "hump" on the front page. :P