From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262244AbVAIDCD (ORCPT ); Sat, 8 Jan 2005 22:02:03 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262243AbVAIDCD (ORCPT ); Sat, 8 Jan 2005 22:02:03 -0500 Received: from h80ad251f.async.vt.edu ([128.173.37.31]:49675 "EHLO h80ad251f.async.vt.edu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262241AbVAIDB7 (ORCPT ); Sat, 8 Jan 2005 22:01:59 -0500 Message-Id: <200501090301.j0931njE007507@turing-police.cc.vt.edu> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.7.2 01/07/2005 with nmh-1.1-RC3 To: znmeb@cesmail.net Cc: John Richard Moser , Linux Kernel Mailing List Subject: Re: starting with 2.7 In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 08 Jan 2005 18:31:50 PST." <1105237910.11255.92.camel@DreamGate> From: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu References: <1697129508.20050102210332@dns.toxicfilms.tv> <41DD9968.7070004@comcast.net> <1105045853.17176.273.camel@localhost.localdomain> <1105115671.12371.38.camel@DreamGate> <41DEC5F1.9070205@comcast.net> <1105237910.11255.92.camel@DreamGate> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="==_Exmh_1105239708_31931P"; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 22:01:48 -0500 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org --==_Exmh_1105239708_31931P Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 18:31:50 PST, "M. Edward Borasky" said: > about grains of rice on the chessboard any more? :) Please don't make me > go back to the days when Thomas Watson said there was a world-wide > market for ten to twelve computers, or when Ken Olsen asked why anyone > would want a computer in their home! Ken Olson had his head stuck someplace when he said that. However, the Thomas Watson quote *does* need some clarification. When he said that, IBM was *already* in the business of selling automated tabulating machinery with limited computational ability on board, and he was specifically talking about large multi-10s-of-millions of dollar pricetag machines (in other words, a supercomputer). He was right then, and he's right now. SGI is selling Altix systems - but I'd be surprised if they can sell more than a half-dozen or so Columbia-scale configurations. IBM will sell lots of 16-64 processor Blue Gene boxes, just like they sold lots of small SP-2 boxes, but they'll probably only sell a very few boxes at the very high end. Look at the Top500 list (www.top500.org). Currently, the leader is a Blue Gene box at 70K Rmax, and 10th place has an Rmax around 9.8K. But 20th is 7.3K and 30th is 5.5K. Lots of people are buying boxes that will land in the 10-100 range, but there's only a few places that are buying stuff that will land in the Top 10. --==_Exmh_1105239708_31931P Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Exmh version 2.5 07/13/2001 iD8DBQFB4J6ccC3lWbTT17ARAt5XAJ9GvVxpPVZ2LB+w4/MZWuh//upNHwCgzfMs t+yk0ikyn6uyF3dg09zbvFI= =SBzC -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --==_Exmh_1105239708_31931P--