12 Apr
2012
12 Apr
'12
6:45 p.m.
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:21:18 -0700
From: eric at brouhaha.com
To:
Subject: Re: The History of SuperComputers
Chuck Guzis wrote:
I'll recommend this "The Supermen, the Story of Seymour Cray"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Supermen-Seymour-Technical-Supercomputer/dp/produ…
I take your point, but there's a difference
between calling something
a "duck" and a "super-duck". The first is largely an accepted term of
art; the second is more of a qualitative judgement. (Is a superduck
just a duck that wears lederhosen--or are there other requirements?).
It helps if the thing was called that by some contemporary industry
source.
Certainly the people that built NORC and Stretch knew full well that
they were building dramatically more powerful computers than existed
previously. It didn't happen by accident. If you had asked them at the
time if they were trying to create a supercomputer, I expect that they
would have answered in the affirmative. Admittedly that is only
speculation.
Eric