It wasn't my intention to suggest that it's practically a reality to
replace a CRAY with a bunch of PC's, but rather to point out that PC's are
what people think of today as a computer. Twenty years ago they'd have
thought of a behemoth, but the popular vision of a computer now looks more
like your desktop system. What's more, taking the SETI-at-home notion as an
example, it is possible to do SOME of those tasks on a bunch of PC's with
their Intel processors. Of course, the CRAY may do it closer to real-time,
but it seldom can do that either. How far off real-time it is probably
doesn't matter as much as one might think once we're decoupled from real
time continuous processing. Doing it in realtime (whatever "doing-it"
means) often requires computers executing exaflops, which we don't seem to
have, ...yet..., though it is achievable by segmenting the data and
processing it separately on thousands of machines. There's lots of latency,
but with enough machines participating in the process, "it" can,
theoretically be accomplished on a continuous basis.
I was being facetious in the original comment, but it is, in fact, true that
the popular vision of "computer" has changed over the past two decades.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: Dave McGuire <mcguire_at_neurotica.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 9:34 PM
Subject: Re: Wirin' up blinkenlights
>
> For a lot of things, maybe...but lots of computational tasks simply
> aren't well suited to running on a thousand tiny buzzing Intel processors.
>
> -Dave McGuire
>
> On June 8, Richard Erlacher wrote:
> > Well . . . you're right, but it might read, "300 PC's replace CRAY -
film at
> > 11." That's in place of the popular Cheers or Frasier reruns . . .
> >
> > Dick
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Dave McGuire <mcguire_at_neurotica.com>
> > To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 7:16 PM
> > Subject: Re: Wirin' up blinkenlights
> >
> >
> > >
> > > PC replaces Cray...film at 11.
> > >
> > > Not quite yet, I'm afraid. The PC isn't the end-all, be-all of
> > > computing.
> > >
> > > -Dave McGuire
> > >
> > > On June 8, Richard Erlacher wrote:
> > > > Careful, now . . . due to the passage of time and the change of the
> > > > "climate" the PDP's, Vaxen, Cray's, etc, that are sitting in
basements
> > and
> > > > garages are the toys now, and the former toys, the PC's, are the
"real"
> > > > computers. Bizzarre, isn't it?
> > > >
> > > > Dick
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: R. D. Davis <rdd_at_smart.net>
> > > > To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> > > > Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 4:45 PM
> > > > Subject: Re: Wirin' up blinkenlights
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > On Thu, 8 Jun 2000, Tony Duell wrote:
> > > > > > > simulator and a PDP-11/45 front panel with no CPU boards. I'd
> > like to
> > > > do
> > > > > > > sort of a faux PDP-11/45 with this setup by somehow wiring the
> > front
> > > > panel
> > > > > > > up to the PC running Sim.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Am I completely out of my mind, or is there even the remotest
> > chance
> > > > of
> > > > > >
> > > > > > We're all out of our minds on this list ;-)
> > > > >
> > > > > Actually, I think that adding blinking lights, and switches, to
any
> > > > > computer is a good idea, and, as my PDP-11s don't have lights and
> > > > > switches, I think it's time to add them... by creating a separate
rack
> > > > > panel, of course. Has anyone here added lights and switches to
one of
> > > > > the PDP-11s of incomplete design?
> > > > >
> > > > > > It's _possible_. It's probably less work to find a set of 11/45
CPU
> > > > > > boards and get them working, but it's still _possible_ to do
what
> > you
> > > > ask.
> > > > >
> > > > > The idea of finding a set of PDP-11 boards is a better idea, as
then
> > the
> > > > > front panel could be used with non-toy computer equipment.
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > R. D. Davis
> > > > > rdd_at_perqlogic.com
> > > > > http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd
> > > > > 410-744-4900
> > > > >
> > >
>
Received on Fri Jun 09 2000 - 12:29:15 BST