17 Jan
2014
17 Jan
'14
8:39 p.m.
On 01/17/2014 12:06 PM, allison wrote:
One has to remember what the machines were used for.
It was designed
to solve very large problems that create huge arrays. Oil mapping is
one thing that does that, the others explode.
Weather forecasting is one non-explosive application. But yes, I
remember the grumbling at LLL about being kicked off of one machine or
another because "the bombers" had some simulation work to do.
Although all operating systems that I'm aware of were
multi-user/multitasking, that was of very limited use for those types of
applications--usually the entire resources of the machine would be put
toward a single problem.
However, we shouldn't forget that the auto industry used supercomputers
as well, but defense was the biggest market segment.
At the time, the raw speed of the big iron could be astounding. I
remember chatting with Greg Mansfield at Cray about rebuilding Unix on
our 11/750 and trying to optimize things to go a bit faster. Greg
confided that he never bothered with partial kernel compiles--he
recompiled the whole thing before he went to refill his coffee cup. By
the time he got back to his seat, it was done.
--Chuck