Re: Computer speed

[Compgo123@xxxxxxx]

(David,  Congratulations on your winning in Ing Cup.)

For integer performance, SpecInt95 is a pretty good benchmark.  One of
the components of this benchmark, 099.go, is an old version of The
Many Faces of Go.  So any CPU which has published this benchmark can be
directly
compared for go performance.

Look at http://www.spec.org for details.  Look on the CPU95 page.

On 099.go,
the Pentium-450 benchmark is 18.7
the T3E uses an Alpha 21164 CPU, also about 18
the RS/6000SP is about 15

the new PA8500 is about 30
the new Alpha 21265 is also about 30

So today, the PII-450 is about as you can get for integer code, but next year
you can do almost twice as good with a fast alpha or PA workstation.

Integer performance has been improving 50 to 60% per year for as long as I
have
been tracking it.  I don't know any reason why that rate would slow down
during the
next 10 years, so expect about 100 times more performance 10 years from now.

Supercomputers used to have much faster processors than anything else, but
this is no
longer true.  Now they tend to have more processors than anything else, but
the
individual processors are no faster than what you can get in a fast
workstation.

David Fotland

PS.  please forward this to computer-go for me since it no longer accepts mail
from my new address :(

At 04:03 PM 12/5/98 EST, you wrote:
>I recently cross over an article in a magzine that mentioned a little about
>super computers. It throw in some names like Cray T3E, IBM RS/6000SP, etc.
>Does anyone care to make some comment about today's (and in next 10 years)
>state of the art super computers? How do they compare with a Pentium 450 MHz?
>For computer Go, I guess the integer operation is more important. Thanks.
>
>
>Dan Liu
>
>