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Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers

From Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups comp.arch
Subject Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers
Date 2025-05-20 13:45 +0300
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <20250520134518.0000531e@yahoo.com> (permalink)
References (3 earlier) <20250518182303.00003542@yahoo.com> <76948d869e78f8cb511809bd159008fd@www.novabbs.com> <100e352$1d61i$3@dont-email.me> <20250519165549.000026d1@yahoo.com> <100ggin$1sbnn$2@dont-email.me>

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On Mon, 19 May 2025 23:58:16 -0000 (UTC)
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

> On Mon, 19 May 2025 16:55:49 +0300, Michael S wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 19 May 2025 01:56:50 -0000 (UTC)
> > Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
> >   
> >> They were orders of magnitude faster than anything from IBM.  
> > 
> > That sounds like exaggeration.  
> 
> Thomas Watson Jr, boss of IBM, sent out the following memo after the
> 1963 Business Week feature on CDC and the forthcoming 6600:
> 
>     Last week Control Data had a press conference during which they
>     officially announced their 6600 system. I understand that in the
>     laboratory developing this system there are only 34 people,
>     including the janitor. Of these, 14 are engineers and 4 are
>     programmers, and only one person has a Ph.D., a relatively junior
>     programmer. Contrasting this modest effort with our own vast
>     development activities, I fail to understand why we have lost our
>     industry leadership position by letting someone else offer the
>     world’s most powerful computer.
> 

At time of introduction CDC 6600 was undoubtedly much faster both than
older [more expensive] IBM 7030 and than contemporary [significantly
less expensive] S/360 Model 50. But it was not "orders of magnitude
faster". Not even one order of magnitude faster, except, may be, vs
Model 50 in artificial very memory-light floating-point intensive
scenarios. 
High end S/360 (Model 65) came about half a year later. I would imagine
that for non-floating-point code it had about the same speed as 6600.
Or not, I don't really know.

> >> They pioneered the very concept of a “supercomputer”.
> >>   
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_7030_Stretch  
> 
> Let’s just say, the 7030 was just the start of a long IBM tradition
> of over-promising and under-delivering.

It is true that IBM was over-promising und under-delivering with 7030.
It does not change the fact that it was called "supercomputer" and that
despite under-delivery until introduction of 6600 it was the fastest
computer in the world.

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Thread

The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> - 2025-05-17 20:00 +0000
  Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-05-17 21:27 +0000
    Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> - 2025-05-18 05:46 +0000
      Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-18 18:23 +0300
        Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-05-18 22:02 +0000
        Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers quadibloc <quadibloc@gmail.com> - 2025-05-19 01:08 +0000
          Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-19 01:56 +0000
            Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers quadibloc <quadibloc@gmail.com> - 2025-05-19 03:12 +0000
              OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2025-05-19 06:22 +0000
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2025-05-19 17:10 +0000
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2025-05-19 17:46 +0000
                Re: OoO execution ze@zerandconsulting.com (Ze) - 2025-05-19 19:09 +0000
                Re: OoO execution Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-20 00:04 +0000
                Re: OoO execution mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-05-20 00:30 +0000
                Re: OoO execution scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2025-05-20 13:52 +0000
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2025-05-21 12:52 -0400
                Re: OoO execution Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2025-05-21 13:14 -0400
                Re: OoO execution moi <findlaybill@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2025-05-21 18:47 +0100
                Re: OoO execution EricP <ThatWouldBeTelling@thevillage.com> - 2025-05-19 14:33 -0400
                Re: OoO execution quadibloc <quadibloc@gmail.com> - 2025-05-19 19:08 +0000
                Re: OoO execution Terje Mathisen <terje.mathisen@tmsw.no> - 2025-05-19 22:04 +0200
                Re: OoO execution Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-19 23:27 +0300
                Re: OoO execution John Savard <quadibloc@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-16 14:27 +0000
                Re: OoO execution mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-07-16 18:27 +0000
                Re: OoO execution Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2025-07-16 17:45 -0400
                Re: OoO execution Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-07-26 02:45 +0000
                Re: OoO execution John Savard <quadibloc@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-31 20:38 +0000
                Re: OoO execution Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-08-01 15:02 +0300
                Re: OoO execution John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2025-08-01 15:44 +0000
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-19 23:41 +0300
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-20 00:01 +0000
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2025-05-20 21:21 +0000
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-30 13:28 +0300
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) Al Kossow <aek@bitsavers.org> - 2025-05-30 10:51 -0700
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2025-05-30 19:36 +0000
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2025-05-31 07:57 +0000
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-30 22:05 +0000
                Re: OoO execution mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-05-30 23:01 +0000
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2025-05-31 08:10 +0000
                Re: OoO execution (was: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers) Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> - 2025-05-29 19:02 +0000
                Re: OoO execution mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-05-29 20:06 +0000
                Re: OoO execution Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-29 22:20 +0000
                Re: OoO execution David Schultz <david.schultz@earthlink.net> - 2025-05-29 18:36 -0500
              Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-19 07:50 +0000
            Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-19 16:55 +0300
              Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-19 23:58 +0000
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-20 13:45 +0300
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-05-20 16:59 +0000
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2025-05-20 19:59 +0000
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-05-20 22:48 +0000
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-21 11:21 +0300
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-21 08:44 +0000
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2025-05-21 16:09 +0000
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-21 20:11 +0300
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2025-05-21 20:04 +0000
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Lars Poulsen <lars@cleo.beagle-ears.com> - 2025-05-25 21:08 +0000
                Re: 360/44, The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2025-05-25 22:50 +0000
    Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-18 11:33 +0300
      Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-05-18 22:01 +0000
        Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-19 16:35 +0300
          Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Al Kossow <aek@bitsavers.org> - 2025-05-19 09:49 -0700
          Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-05-19 18:14 +0000
            Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-19 23:11 +0300
              Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers BGB <cr88192@gmail.com> - 2025-05-20 01:36 -0500
            Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-20 05:40 +0000
              Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-05-20 16:58 +0000
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-21 00:28 +0000
            Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers "Brian G. Lucas" <bagel99@gmail.com> - 2025-05-26 11:48 -0500
              Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers mitchalsup@aol.com (MitchAlsup1) - 2025-05-26 18:01 +0000
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers EricP <ThatWouldBeTelling@thevillage.com> - 2025-05-26 16:52 -0400
                Re: The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers Al Kossow <aek@bitsavers.org> - 2025-05-26 19:27 -0700

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