Posted on 10/25/2007 8:00:21 AM PDT by EarthBound
Japan's NEC Corp. on Thursday announced the launch of what it called the world's most powerful supercomputer on the market, meant for advanced use in the sciences.
Since the 1970s, major computer makers such as NEC, Fujitsu and Hitachi in Japan and IBM, Intel and SGI in the United States have been vying to build the most powerful computer, measured in terms of gigaflops and teraflops.
NEC said that its latest supercomputer, called SX-9, is capable of calculating 839 teraflops -- or 839 trillion floating point operations per second.
"The SX-9 has been developed to meet the need for ultra-fast simulations of advanced and complex large-capacity scientific computing," Yoshikazu Maruyama, senior vice president of NEC Corp., said in a statement.
NEC's supercomputers are used in fields including advanced weather forecasting, aerospace and in large research institutes and companies.
The company said it has already sold more than 1,000 supercomputers in the SX series.
The SX-9 will first go on display at a supercomputing convention next month in Reno, Nevada.
© 2007 AFP
pingy
PETA is a flop
I holding out for the gazillaflop.
*rimshot*
If it had come with a built-in LCD monitor, I might have kept it.
S-100 Bus
(tune: Bonnie Ship the Diamond)
(Frank Hayes)
When I was young, my friends all worked like fools to get their share
Of an S-100 system, like an Imsai or Altair;
Well the S-100’s still around, I’m very glad to say
But friends, I’m here to tell you that it’s not the same today.
chorus: And it’s cheer up, my lads, let your hearts never fuss
When you’re integrating systems for the S-100 bus.
To tell the truth, the source of all our troubles seems to be
A committee on computers of the I of triple E;
They settled on a standard spec, 696 by name
Now everything is standardized, but nothing works the same.
They say the 80 boards are way too slow - it’s enough to give you fits
If the 09 isn’t fast enough, then go to 16 bits.
68 and z8000 and an 86 as well,
And code compatability goes straight to bloody hell
Then add a board for the modem line and one for every port
and a printer board and a keyboard board, and as a last resort
For every problem we will add a board that has the cure,
It’s not too damned efficient, but it’s a mother, that’s for sure.
And when it’s all assembled there’s computer to your collar,
It’s nice to have a micro but a mainframe would be smaller.
And when they turn the power on, it’s sure to dim the lamps
With plus or minus sixteen volts and fourteen hundred amps.
First “computer game” I ever played ... on an IBM mainframe no less.
But does the SX-9 run OS-X?...
Ahhhh, the good old days.
Decide on a move.
Punch and submit a deck of cards.
Get results in an hour.
Make the next more...
next move.
*sigh* caught it just as I mashed post...
I had access to a "portable terminal".
This was a device about the size of a suitcase with:
1) a keyboard
2) a thermal paper printer
3) an "acoustic coupler" and a 300 baud modem
4) appropriate electronics inside.
The thing weighed about 80lb. No "graphics"; it used (IIRC) an "O" for the Enterprise, an "X" for a Klingon, a "*" for stars (big surprise!) and "-" for empty space.
Yeah, but can it run Vista?
300 baud?
We would have killed for 300 baud!
All we had was smoke signals...
Can anything?
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