[Info-vax] OT: Intel dusts off old supercomputing technology

[Arne Vajhøj]

Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
> Michael Kraemer wrote:
>> Michael Moroney schrieb:
>>
>>> It wasn't a question about numbers (I'm fully aware about the number 
>>> of PC
>>> GPUs vs. VMS systems), it was a question on how easy it must be to
>>> implement a client on VMS vs. GPUs, although the motivation to tap that
>>> admittedly large supply of CPU horsepower would be rather high.  A PC
>>> graphics card doesn't exactly come with a run time library suitable 
>>> to run
>>> number crunchers, and I'm sure loading an actual program onto, and 
>>> getting
>>> results from, a graphics card requires some Windoze hackery.  Meanwhile,
>>> an OS that was originally designed as a number cruncher in part doesn't
>>> have a client.  Seti at home was dropped since the newer BOINC code wasn't
>>> easily ported.
>>
>> The days VMS was used for raw number crunching are long gone
>> (did it ever make it in the upper half of the Top 500 ?)
>> and somehow I doubt that it was better suited for this
>> purpose than any other OS.
> 
> What, if anything, does the O/S have to do with number crunching?
> I would think that the hardware would govern!

Mostly in the sense that a given OS only runs on certain hardware.

(there can be some libraries that are OS specific, but usually
is is HW bang for the buck that matters in this area)

Arne