MPP Possibility (Was: Notice)

From: Matt London <matt_at_pkl.net>
Date: Wed Aug 22 10:23:23 2001

Hi,

> > >This leads to one mind-boggling possibility. If one etches custom boards
> > >with eight Z80s each, and pumps all eight each clock, and one takes
> > >several thousand of these boards, wouldn't that be a rather interesting
> > >MPP supercomputer? Would it be more or less money than one made with,
> > >say, IBM POWER4s, or Alphas, or StrongARMs?
> >
> > Heh! I like it... The chips would be cheaper in bulk as well, and with a
> > bit of heatsinking it should be possible to overclock them somewhat.
>
> How hot do Z80s get under normal operation? Would you be able to
> overclock them using heatsinks without fans? That would simplify things a
> bit.

Well I remember my Sinclair ZX spectrum (48k model woohoo!) got warm
enough to be nice to sit on your lap on a cold day, but I think that was
the voltage regulator with the large piece of aluminium used as a heatsync
more than the Z80.

My TRS-80 is a different story tho - the RAM used to heat that one :&)

--Matt
Received on Wed Aug 22 2001 - 10:23:23 BST