According to SGI's Products ( http://www.sgi.com/products/ ) page, their T90 series is based on the Cray vector processing system. I haven't looked at the Top500 list in a couple of hours, but I do remember there being a couple T90-based machines on there. Add to this their SV1 (Scalable Vector) line, and you do have at least two major system options if it's American vector computing you're after.
But even their 60Gflops T90 series, maxxed out, can't come close to the 6 TERAflops of the highest-end Hitachi SR8000 systems. Whoa mama!
So is it possible that vector architectures naturally excel at the Linpack benchmark, similar to the way SSE or 3DNow processors naturally excel at 3D benchmarks (assuming of course that said benchmarks were compiled to use the extra instructions)? Does this mean that these vector machines are very good for one certain thing, namely massive floating point number crunching, but are not well suited to much else, (i.e. large numbers of users and/or jobs running, invoking heavy, rapid context switches instead of sustained FLOPs)? Don't highly pipelines architectures suffer from changing between heterogenous data streams (forching pipleine flushes on each context switch)?
Although to be fair, the definition of "CPU" might differ from one manufacturer to another. For one it might be just a single chip itself, for another, "CPU" might be an individual cabinet full of a couple dozen chips. Can anyone shed light on this?
I mean, it's nice to see the US machines taking the cream of the honors in raw power... but what the heck - ASCI Red gets it's 1st place berth with 9 THOUSAND some odd cpus (.0246Rmax pts / cpu), whereas the Hitachi machine gets a very respectable 5th with only 128: 6.8Rmax pts per CPU! Isn't there some credit due for the more efficient machine? It doesn't seem that impressive to simply dump silicon at a problem until you are #1...
Just an excerpt from the document that specifically addresses the Linux issue viz. competition to the Windows monopoly: 50. The experience of the Linux operating system, a version of which runs on Intel-compatible PCs, similarly fails to refute the existence of an applications barrier to entry. Linux is an "open source" operating system that was created, and is continuously updated, by a global network of software developers who contribute their labor for free. Although Linux has between ten and fifteen million users, the majority of them use the operating system to run servers, not PCs. Several ISVs have announced their development of (or plans to develop) Linux versions of their applications. To date, though, legions of ISVs have not followed the lead of these first movers. Similarly, consumers have by and large shown little inclination to abandon Windows, with its reliable developer support, in favor of an operating system whose future in the PC realm is unclear. By itself, Linux's open-source development model shows no signs of liberating that operating system from the cycle of consumer preferences and developer incentives that, when fueled by Windows' enormous reservoir of applications, prevents non-Microsoft operating systems from competing.
and assume the existence of ghosts, for argument's sake. With this I'd need to assume the existence of a spiritual plane/dimension/universe, etc. Even if I do this, (thus stepping into ghost belivers' shoes) I find the whole notion of capturing an image or recording of a spirit entity on a mechanical device to be half absurd, even when viewed from their own angle.
After all, this is supposed to be an incorporeal entity, is it not? And thus why assume it would actually emit or reflect any kind of electromagnetic energy, light/infrared/radio waves included, at all?
Humans, from a believer's view, are a hybrid - part material, part spirit. Ghosts are sprit entities. Who knows hows much control they have over their own universe? They might manifest a material essence, or they might circumvent material-space entirely. The way an "image" of a ghost can be projected onto human consciousness is considerably different than the way an image appears to an optical device. The ghost might be able to set up an image directly on the optic nerve. Ghosts could even selectively appear to some people and not to others. The trouble with paranormal investigation is that, when you add this enormous X nature of the "spritual" world to your analysis all bets are off.
Even if you belive in ghosts, the idea that you could candidly "catch" them using a device intended to record material phenomena is nonsensical.
http://www.funtime-world.de/bericht/woa240799.ht ml
Well, anyway at least the image quality is better. Note front-mounted USB ports, and the slight concave indentation above them - almost looks like the whole light-grey part can slide out of the case. Also, the improved shape of the monitor over the foam models. Still bulky, though. Case has DVD/CD drive on top and ???? on the bottom. Wonder what that could be.. 256k memory expansion slot?
These pics are from the World of Amiga 99 show in London, the one where the Transmeta logo was shown in the "Amiga Partners" video or whatever it was called.
Slashdot Mirror
According to SGI's Products ( http://www.sgi.com/products/ ) page, their T90 series is based on the Cray vector processing system. I haven't looked at the Top500 list in a couple of hours, but I do remember there being a couple T90-based machines on there. Add to this their SV1 (Scalable Vector) line, and you do have at least two major system options if it's American vector computing you're after.
But even their 60Gflops T90 series, maxxed out, can't come close to the 6 TERAflops of the highest-end Hitachi SR8000 systems. Whoa mama!
So is it possible that vector architectures naturally excel at the Linpack benchmark, similar to the way SSE or 3DNow processors naturally excel at 3D benchmarks (assuming of course that said benchmarks were compiled to use the extra instructions)? Does this mean that these vector machines are very good for one certain thing, namely massive floating point number crunching, but are not well suited to much else, (i.e. large numbers of users and/or jobs running, invoking heavy, rapid context switches instead of sustained FLOPs)? Don't highly pipelines architectures suffer from changing between heterogenous data streams (forching pipleine flushes on each context switch)?
Although to be fair, the definition of "CPU" might differ from one manufacturer to another. For one it might be just a single chip itself, for another, "CPU" might be an individual cabinet full of a couple dozen chips. Can anyone shed light on this?
I mean, it's nice to see the US machines taking the cream of the honors in raw power... but what the heck - ASCI Red gets it's 1st place berth with 9 THOUSAND some odd cpus (.0246Rmax pts / cpu), whereas the Hitachi machine gets a very respectable 5th with only 128: 6.8Rmax pts per CPU! Isn't there some credit due for the more efficient machine? It doesn't seem that impressive to simply dump silicon at a problem until you are #1...
Just an excerpt from the document that specifically addresses the Linux issue viz. competition to the Windows monopoly: 50. The experience of the Linux operating system, a version of which runs on Intel-compatible PCs, similarly fails to refute the existence of an applications barrier to entry. Linux is an "open source" operating system that was created, and is continuously updated, by a global network of software developers who contribute their labor for free. Although Linux has between ten and fifteen million users, the majority of them use the operating system to run servers, not PCs. Several ISVs have announced their development of (or plans to develop) Linux versions of their applications. To date, though, legions of ISVs have not followed the lead of these first movers. Similarly, consumers have by and large shown little inclination to abandon Windows, with its reliable developer support, in favor of an operating system whose future in the PC realm is unclear. By itself, Linux's open-source development model shows no signs of liberating that operating system from the cycle of consumer preferences and developer incentives that, when fueled by Windows' enormous reservoir of applications, prevents non-Microsoft operating systems from competing.
and assume the existence of ghosts, for argument's sake. With this I'd need to assume the existence of a spiritual plane/dimension/universe, etc. Even if I do this, (thus stepping into ghost belivers' shoes) I find the whole notion of capturing an image or recording of a spirit entity on a mechanical device to be half absurd, even when viewed from their own angle.
After all, this is supposed to be an incorporeal entity, is it not? And thus why assume it would actually emit or reflect any kind of electromagnetic energy, light/infrared/radio waves included, at all?
Humans, from a believer's view, are a hybrid - part material, part spirit. Ghosts are sprit entities. Who knows hows much control they have over their own universe? They might manifest a material essence, or they might circumvent material-space entirely. The way an "image" of a ghost can be projected onto human consciousness is considerably different than the way an image appears to an optical device. The ghost might be able to set up an image directly on the optic nerve. Ghosts could even selectively appear to some people and not to others. The trouble with paranormal investigation is that, when you add this enormous X nature of the "spritual" world to your analysis all bets are off.
Even if you belive in ghosts, the idea that you could candidly "catch" them using a device intended to record material phenomena is nonsensical.
- The Count
Of NON-foam mockups.
t ml
http://www.funtime-world.de/bericht/woa240799.h
Well, anyway at least the image quality is better.
Note front-mounted USB ports, and the slight concave indentation above them - almost looks like the whole light-grey part can slide out of the case. Also, the improved shape of the monitor over the foam models. Still bulky, though. Case has DVD/CD drive on top and ???? on the bottom. Wonder what that could be.. 256k memory expansion slot?
These pics are from the World of Amiga 99 show in London, the one where the Transmeta logo was shown in the "Amiga Partners" video or whatever it was called.
-The Count