[Beowulf] Supercomputers - iPad versus Cray

[Ellis H. Wilson III]

On 03/08/2012 01:30 PM, Mark Hahn wrote:
> including how you could possibly
> spend $10k on a dual-socket box

Yea, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt on that one and just 
hoping he bought the parts some years back, or has crazy expensive water 
cooling, but in essence yes the 120 number for flops is embarrassing 
given how much he paid.  Also, his wife having bought that computer for 
1700 is equally brow-raising.  My desktop directly compares to that 
desktop machine but was bought for $800 in early 2009...  It seems given 
his inclination to overpay for things and the interest in using iPads 
for clustering, he has too much money on his hands :).

The article with Dongarra is particularly weird however, as that is a 
guy who /does/ know a lot about computing.  Perhaps it was just a 
sensationalist spin for the NYT since so many now have iPads at home so 
the average iJoe will connect with the article (read: Oh I have a dated 
supercomputer in my hands!).  Either way, it still surprised me as the 
article should have just ended before the laughable suggestion that we 
tether these chic monitors with a brain together.  That was a little 
disturbing coming from him.

Best,

ellis