Uncommon: Intel Paragon on iOffer

[Chuck Guzis]

On 22 Dec 2010 at 7:44, Tim Shoppa wrote:

> 
> Bringing back that exhiliration by running the same hardware that was
> new 20 years ago, but today? It's just not the same. Again, the fickle
> world of parallel supercomputing.
> 
> These are machines that are fine for displaying in museums, they were
> truly the pinnacle of parallel supercomputing for a couple years. I'm
> very happy that CHM has examples of each. But not at home :-).

I pointed it out because (a) the Intel i860 was yet another stumble 
by Intel to get away from the 8008 architecture (the 432 being only a 
slightly earlier one--and one in a diametrically opposite direction) 
and the application (cluster) was novel.

As far as speed, well, I have no doubt that a cluster of today's game 
consoles can outperform it.  But that's the story of computing.

As to the applicability as a home machine, I think we've seen 
demonstrations on this list of the futility of that label!

--Chuck