[86799] in Cypherpunks
Re: Supercomputer export link in National Security Committee
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Stewart)
Fri Sep 19 01:43:21 1997
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 21:50:30 -0700
To: cypherpunks@algebra.com
From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
In-Reply-To: <199709181848.OAA12580@users.invweb.net>
Reply-To: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
>>Are we getting screwed by a false link to supercomputers?
Supercomputers have been part of the Export Controls for a long time.
Of course, a few years ago, "supercomputer == Cray-1" was the obvious
definition.
Eugene Brooks's "Attack of the Killer Micros" has hit that industry hard.*
Some of the DEC Alpha machines hit that speed point, and lots of
lobbying was started that gradually moved the limit. But now,
"Cray-1 ~~ Pentium-133" for basic number-crunching, though there
are still applications requiring really high memory bandwidth where
the Cray-1 will outperform the Pentium, and the Crays have a much better
I/O architecture than your basic PC (though PCIbus is no slouch, and
Ultra-Wide-Hyper-SCSI stuff keeps improving as well.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* "Careful with that VAX, Eugene!". The "Attack of the Killer Micros"
was Brooks's restatement of Moore's Law for the supercomputer industry,
probably 10 years ago when I was still reading comp.arch.
Thanks!
Bill
Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com
Regular Key PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639
