#Alpha/Cray renderers <g
9 messages in this thread
Martin –
I'll sell you my SMP Alpha – just bought a used Cray. 😉
How are things, Martin?
Bob
>> I'll sell you my SMP Alpha – just bought a used Cray. 😉
Is that right? Which one? I have an X-MP fully loaded. Now all I need is a
government grant to pay for the electric bill…
Gus –
I'm next door to a SCE plant, and I've covertly run an extension cord over the
fence to get power for the Alpha ;-).
bob
>> I have an X-MP fully loaded. <<
Although I'm sure Robert was joking, I wouldn't be surprised if you are
telling the truth. (Scary!) When does that shipment of Connection Machines
show up?!? I was just curious how a Cray compares to current technology
consumer computers…
BTW. It was a pleasure to meet you at Siggraph (albeit briefly).
– Dave
yeah right… <g> I wish…
You can't really compare these computers to micro computers. Massive parallel
computers work best on certain data models and both OS and application must be
hand tweaked to make any good sense. If you could run something like Windows in
one of this boxes as is, it wouldn't be much faster than your off the shelf x86
box.
No I don't have a X-MP… yet… I just saw an ad selling one for $30,000
(original price in 1990 was $15,000,000)… It would make a good… something.
Just like I always wanted to buy an old Dakota (Douglas DC-3) just to have it
in my back yard… maybe make my office out of it… I can see my neighbors
crying…
Take a look at Maui Rendernet's web page at www.maui.com/~rendernet , they
can render
your files on the IBM SP-2 at Maui's supercomputer center. That one will crank
over 100
GigaFLOPS. Kinda makes a XM-P seem a little slow. They will be releasing their
software this
year to allow the rest of us to render our 3DS files on our very own SP-2
supercomputer.
Maybe I won't buy that Dual Pentium and NT after all!
-Matt (Active Media Graphics)
Y 50 /g fM/
>> $30,000 <<
What a deal! 2/10 of one percent of the original sale price! Combined with
the Dakota you could start your own technology museum…
>>>1990 was $15,000,000)… It would make a good… something. Just like I
always wanted to buy an old Dakota (Douglas DC-3) just to have it in my back
yard… maybe make my office out of it… I can see my neighbors crying…<<<
Makes a niffty prop for your next Sci-Fi film if it comes with a rack of tape
drives. I saw the ad you mentioned in Sept PC Mag and thought It would be a
neat toy for the basement…
-David.
-David Robert Swoboda
Bob,
>> I'll sell you my SMP Alpha – just bought a used Cray. <<
actually I'm holding out hope for quad P6's. They might give Alpha like
performance for less money. Plus, few developers have pledged support for the
Alpha.
>> How are things, Martin? <<
fine, thanks. And you?