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1994 - a Year of Change

Hans W. Meuer and Erich Strohmaier

Abstract:

In 1994 the field of High Performance Computing (HPC) changed very much in many different aspects. Companies like Thinking Machines (TMC) ---the former market leader in the field of MPP systems--- and KSR ---with one of the most innovative concepts for MPPs--- went bankrupt while other companies like Silicon Graphics and IBM came out very stong. For the first time MPP systems took over the lead over PVP systems and at the same time we see a strong move towards CMOS technology. The trend to off-the-shel f processors is still holding on and there is a new trend towards nodes, which are binary-compatible to workstation nodes. In this paper we will discuss the different developments based on the TOP500 lists of supercomputer sites which have been available since June 1993 [1] and which, for the first time, provide a reliable base for a well-founded analysis of the high-performance computing field. A report about the situation in 1993 was published a year ago [2].

top500@rz.uni-mannheim.de
Tue Nov 14 14:58:23 PST 1995