Abstract
Innovations in parallel computer architecture, as well as the development of many new languages, was originally driven by the frontiers of high-performance technical computing. Much of that work took place in small start-ups companies. While parallel computer technology did receive a lot of attention in the early 90’s, it never became a widely accepted technique for providing computing to the masses. Only a hand-full machines were manufactured each year.
In the middle of the 90’s, parallel computer technology suddenly got a boost from the new application area of parallel commercial computing. Overnight, the rocket science arena of parallel computing became the main-stream technology for many established computer manufacturers. Meanwhile, many, if not all, of the start-up struggled to stay alive. Today, the start-ups have all disappeared and commercial computing dominates the server marked with around 85-90% of the total server market revenue. While the established computer manufacturers have brought stability and availability to the high-performance technical computing customers, innovation focus is no longer geared only towards the needs of that market segment.
In this talk I will analyze the past, current and future of high-performance computers and try to identify the good news and bad news it brings to the technical computing community.
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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Hagersten, E. (2001). High-Performance Computers: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. In: Sørevik, T., Manne, F., Gebremedhin, A.H., Moe, R. (eds) Applied Parallel Computing. New Paradigms for HPC in Industry and Academia. PARA 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1947. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-70734-4_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-70734-4_3
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