IBM just won the contract for LLNL's next gen flagship machine. The system is basically an upgraded BlueGene/P, with faster CPUs and more cores/socket.
But it's an astonishing level of performance, given that the 100 TFlop barrier was only crossed a few years ago, and the fact they've been able to do it in such a small footprint is pretty amazing too. Of course, it would be fairly straightforward to achieve the same peak performance (not the same sustained), with a bunch of GPUs, and in a smaller footprint (both physical & power), but that machine probably wouldn't have the same level of flexibility, although the per cpu memory bandwidth is probably higher for the GPU system.
For the rest of the industry, this a big deal. It seems that LLNL is now exclusively an IBM house, at least when it comes to Big Iron, and it's hard to see how any other vendor could have any reasonable expectation to win such a contract, despite the open bidding process.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Stand Up Confession
I guess this is some form of closure for David Letterman.. It's clear that his misjudgment in removing Bill's routine from his show has haunted him since.
It was the religious content, particularly the segment railing against the pro-lifers, that got Bill banned. And a week later, when he saw a pro-life ad being played in the commercial breaks during Dave's show, Bill had his moment of epiphany.
Still, the reason people feel guilt is that they know right from wrong, and Dave did a profoundly decent thing by inviting Bill's mom on the show, to apologize to her personally in public, and to try and make amends.
Now there are people who don't get Bill Hicks, and don't understand what the fuss is all about.
He was a man, who despite the evidence to the contrary, and his own occasional lapses in faith, believed profoundly that the human race deserved to be saved, especially from itself.
And his comedy was all about the contrast between wrong and right, between freedom and sanctimony, about defying political correctness but still being compassionate about people, and most importantly about truth, intelligence, heart and integrity.
Most tellingly, he showed no fear by performing his comedy at a time when Reagan and George Bush were President, the PMRC was trying to put labels on CDs, and when the most controversial comedians out there were shlock merchants like Andrew Dice Clay, Sam Kinison and Howard Stern. Then, his outrage actually meant something, as opposed to today, where it's just another demographic.
It was the religious content, particularly the segment railing against the pro-lifers, that got Bill banned. And a week later, when he saw a pro-life ad being played in the commercial breaks during Dave's show, Bill had his moment of epiphany.
Still, the reason people feel guilt is that they know right from wrong, and Dave did a profoundly decent thing by inviting Bill's mom on the show, to apologize to her personally in public, and to try and make amends.
Now there are people who don't get Bill Hicks, and don't understand what the fuss is all about.
He was a man, who despite the evidence to the contrary, and his own occasional lapses in faith, believed profoundly that the human race deserved to be saved, especially from itself.
And his comedy was all about the contrast between wrong and right, between freedom and sanctimony, about defying political correctness but still being compassionate about people, and most importantly about truth, intelligence, heart and integrity.
Most tellingly, he showed no fear by performing his comedy at a time when Reagan and George Bush were President, the PMRC was trying to put labels on CDs, and when the most controversial comedians out there were shlock merchants like Andrew Dice Clay, Sam Kinison and Howard Stern. Then, his outrage actually meant something, as opposed to today, where it's just another demographic.
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