The Attack of the Killer Micros
One of the key drivers in the high-performance computing industry is the disparity between the price/performance and overall performance gains of microprocessors versus conventional mainframes and vector supercomputers. As Figure 2 illustrates, the gains in microprocessor performance are far more rapid than those for supercomputers, with no end in sight for this trend. When looking at curves such as these, it seems obvious that high-performance microprocessors and parallel systems built from these microprocessors will come to dominate the high-end computing market; this is the "attack of the killer micros."
This changeover is only just now occurring. As Figure 3 illustrates, parallel systems are now capable of higher performance and better price/performance than traditional supercomputers. This transition occurred with the advent of RISC microprocessors, which provided sufficient floating point performance to enable parallel systems to rival supercomputers. This performance and price/performance gap will continue to widen in favor of parallel micro-based systems as microprocessor gains continue to outstrip those of supercomputers.
Figure 2.
Absolute performance gains of microprocessors versus supercomputers.
Figure 3.
Improvements in parallel processors versus supercomputers.