[Beowulf] Win64 Clusters!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Robin Harker]

And after IBM built it they tried very hard to keep Compaq, et al out from
this Open Architecture.


> Miller Ross wrote:
>> <...>
>>
>> That said, we as an industry do owe Microsoft one significant debt.
>> The standardization of Microcomputer hardware.
> I am not so sure. Microsoft deals (at least dealt) with software, not
> hardware.
> I am not completely sure if there is someone who shall get the credit or
> if it was just a coincidence that the PC the is the "winner". If someone
> must get some credit, that shall be given to IBM and Donald Estridge.
> Donald was responsible for building the PC based on an open architecture
> and to use components (software and hardware) from outside of IBM. Open
> architecture and off-the-shelf components made the IBM PC architecture
> becoming the de-facto standard.
>
> I believe that these are the same fundaments of beowulf, why the PC grew
> so much during this period, and a good example of how open standards
> promote innovation.
>
> Ariel
>
>>   Up until DOS the world was so fragmented it was impossible to launch
>> anything in the software, or even specialized hardware arena using
>> economies of scale.  With the world standardizing on the PC platform
>> with DOS  stability and real desktop productivity gains became
>> possible.  Alan Greenspan addressed congress in 1997. Having watched
>> the address I was personally impressed with his statement that the US.
>> per-capita GDP was dramatically higher than any other nation at that
>> time, because the US had a PC on pretty much every worker's desk that
>> needed access to a PC.  Microsoft brought the US that standardization,
>> and those productivity gains.
>>
>> To the best of my recollection it went.
>>
>> U.S. 1.0 (normalized)
>> Japan .92
>> Germany .87
>> UK same range
>> and it went WAY down from there.
>>
>> That same low cost microcomputer is what we base our Beowulf clusters
>> on today, essentially a more reliable beefier version of a desktop
>> PC.  Just as we don't want Beowulf to be overridden by 'adopt,
>> assimilate, and expand', we should give the credit where credit is due
>> that we are not using Commodore 64's, TI's, Atari's, or DEC- Rainbows
>> as cluster nodes.
>>
>> Ross
>>
>
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Robin Harker
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