hwich's Profile

Member since August 27, 2008

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    hwich

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  1. Comment - With the petaflop barrier broken, is it time to change the benchmark?

    (Nov 21, 2008 - 11:05 AM)

    foxfyre,

    Yes, you do make a number of good points. However, in order to give funders/investors/elected officials a semi viable way to rank a computer it is probably difficult to convince them of funding. Having a PhD tell a funder they need $200M+ to buy a machine while only supplying them with a number of processors, RAM, and some arcane chip to chip communications technology isn't reasonable. The investors (government or business/scientific) want to have a relative idea of how the funding will boost performance.

    Another thing to consider is the value of running multiple types of benchmarks. It may be feasible and cost efficient to have a dozen+ types of software and benchmarks for games, office suites, video, photo manipulation, etc. for say, desktop PCs. But this is when machines cost only thousands of dollars and the benchmarks are relatively standard software packages across x86 type chips & video cards. It is far far more costly to rewrite benchmark software to run on the multitude of hardware that encompasses supercomputers...plus the extraordinary cost involved in running the benchmarks on 1 of a kind equipment that costs millions and presumably thousands of dollars just in electricity to run per day.

    1-2 benchmarks may not be optimum (and obviously, a rewrite of the HPL is necessary) but it is the best we can reasonably hope for.

  2. Comment - New Windows Genuine authenticator can blank desktop backgrounds

    (Aug 27, 2008 - 3:47 PM)

    Well, what about those of us who 'upgraded' from a legit XP Home (preinstalled) to XP Pro just for IIS? I'd love to pay MS $50 or so to make my Pro legit and stop having WindowsUpdate hassles.

    Unfortunately, MS won't give me a way. I can attempt to claim it as a hacked preinstalled copy and probably get a 'free' upgrade, but I'd have to report a legit retailer as bad (unfair to them). Or, I can completely reformat my drive and install a legit XP Pro (assuming you could buy it) or Vista. Sadly, who the hell wants to reformat a 5 year old machine (reformatted 1-2 times 3 years ago when Pro was put on) when the drive space is almost full and a new one is planned for 'sometime soon'?

    Sadly, I'm stalling on buying Vista because of compatibility with VPN software for work, etc. I'd rather pay $50 or so and make the nag screens go away...but good luck figuring out how to make a Pro 'hacked' go legit officially through MS. Make it easy for me Microsoft to give you money!