Supercomputers bulk up on power while losing price pounds
,----[ Quote ]
| Two years later, the number of processor cores in the Top500 systems had
| jumped to 732,500. And when the academic researchers who compile the list
| released the latest version at SC07, the number of cores had reached
| 1,648,095.
|
| [...]
|
| Picklo, who oversees clustered Linux and Unix systems with a total of 1,650
| processor cores, said that the vendors of HPC applications aren't keeping up
| with the shift to multicore chips. According to Picklo, many software vendors
| still base their pricing on the number of processor cores in a system. The
| problem, he said, is that quad-core processors don't necessarily deliver
| performance equal to that of four single-core chips.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=713436571&rid=-50
Maximum Wait for MinWin, Windows 7.0
,----[ Quote ]
| Frankly, the industry isn’t waiting around for Microsoft to fix its problems
| this time around. Companies like Tech Data have introduced Macintoshes — yes,
| Macintoshes — with downgrades to Windows XP preinstalled. And Dell downgraded
| some of its customer offerings to XP before introducing Ubuntu Linux on a
| handful of systems. And Apple’s market share continues to rise.
|
| Sure, Windows still dominates the market. But customers aren’t exactly
| demanding Vista by name.
|
| Enter MinWin. To Microsoft’s credit, the company realizes that it needs to
| get away from bloated Windows releases. But this is a long-range strategy,
| folks. When the trade press starts predicting that a distant Windows release
| will correct current Windows problems, it’s time for all of us to demand a
| reality check.
`----
http://techiqmag.com/2007/12/03/maximum-wait-for-minwin-windows-70/
Recent:
Linux in more than 90% of top supercomputers
,----[ Quote ]
| Other operating systems, such as AIX (4.8%), Solaris (0.4%) and Mac OS X
| (0.4%) make the list, but Linux is alone at the top, where it is used in 459
| systems or 91.8% of the top supercomputer systems.
`----
http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2007/11/15/linux-in-more-than-90-of-top-supercomputers/
http://tinyurl.com/2rponk
What Intel Giveth, Microsoft Taketh Away
,----[ Quote ]
| “What Intel giveth, Microsoft taketh away.” Such has been the conventional
| wisdom surrounding the Windows/Intel (“Wintel”) duopoly since the early days
| of Windows 95. In practical terms, it means that performance advancements on
| the hardware side are quickly consumed by the ever-increasing complexity of
| the Windows/Office code base. Case in point: Microsoft Office 2007 which,
| when deployed on Windows Vista, consumes over 12x as much memory and nearly
| 3x as much processing power as the version that graced PCs just 7 short years
| ago (Office 2000).
`----
http://exo-blog.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-intel-giveth-microsoft-taketh-away.html
Windows for Supercomputers needs less memory than Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| With its first public beta of Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008,
| released last week, Microsoft coincidentally highlighted one of the
| reasons why Windows Vista adoption figures have remained near-non-
| existent in the enterprise -- its expensive hardware requirements.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;2091560903;fp;2;fpid;1
Related:
Seagate: Vista OS requires 250GB to 1TB of storage
,----[ Quote ]
| Seagate exec: To fully leverage Vista, you need 250GB to 1TB of storage
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9038438
Vista PCs: Suffering from Memory Loss?
,----[ Quote ]
| A reader wants to know why his new computer--which is supposed to have
| 4GB of memory--keeps telling him it really has only 3GB
`----
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2007/tc20070326_121616.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_technology
Testing Vista's different memory configurations
,----[ Quote ]
| You simply cannot play games on Vista with 512MB o memory, at least not the
| games wen tested. You will sometimes get playable scores but even then the
| experience and the load time will be ridiculous.
|
| Anything more than 512MB will help you a lot, with 2x1GB being the best
| price performance buy.
|
| 4x1GB is the best choice for best raw performance. It is hard to prove it
| ^^^^^
| in every test, but if you have 2x1GB and you load as much in memory, the
| ^^^^^
| system will become endessly slow.
| ^^^^
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36148
Vista Runs Smooth Only on 2G Memory
,----[ Quote ]
| However, Dell CEO Kevin Rollins suggested otherwise on Thursday, 26 Oct at
| a speech at Shanghai's Jiaotong University. "I think they tell you maybe 1
| gig of memory is OK. No, two gigs of memory would be great."
|
| This echoes with my own experience with Vista RC2. With only 1G of
| RAM, there are many disk activities indicating heavy disk swap, a
| symptom of lack of memory in the system.
`----
http://www.itechnote.com/2006/10/27/vista-runs-smooth-only-on-2g-memory/
Vista System Memory Concerns
,----[ Quote ]
| Vista: Facing a Slow Adoption. In the beginning, early adopters and
| gamers who are looking to ready themselves for the DirectX 10 upgrade
| will be best suited for those ready to make an investment in the
| unknown.
|
| Considering how many software and game titles will likely need to
| be run in "compatibility mode" until patches are released across
| the board, I would suggest really looking at what Vista's advantages
| are before taking the plunge.
|
| No matter how much we may wish to see the path Vista is about to
| embark on, the fact remains that because of its hardware requirements,
| Vista adoption may turn out to be rather slow.
`----
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2395&Itemid=449
Microsoft Windows Is A Greedy Memory Hog, The Cure Is To Feed It RAM
,----[ Quote ]
| For Windows 2000, XP, 512MB is the minimum and 1GB or more is recommended.
| For Windows 98 any flavor, 256MB is the minimum and 1GB is recommended. If
| you are an avid PC gamer or video editor, 1GB is the minimum
| recommendation. Other operating systems such as Linux or Mac are similar.
| Simply put: more is better.
`----
http://bytepowered.org/articles/Article/Microsoft-Windows-Is-A-Greedy-Memory-Hog--The-Cure-Is-To-Feed-It-RAM/539
http://tinyurl.com/yn9ztx
Not so green computing: Is Windows an energy hog?
,----[ Quote ]
| The bank uses Linux, AIX and Solaris, which he says are more efficient. "If
| we can put something on Unix we prefer to do that," he says.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/6283
|
|
