Hello WCG.

Attention: all.

Reference:
"IBM: Envisioning the world's fastest supercomputer"
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10410044-64.html

"Blue Waters"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Waters

Gentlemen:

With the first of the petascale-class supercomputers, in Blue Waters, envisioned to be completed in 2011, it dawned on me that the PC may need to be upgraded to a whole new level to keep pace with trends. Intel's coming 6-core chip hyper-threaded to give 12-cores is probably not good enough for the task. The chip that powers Blue Waters is the Power7 -- an 8-core chip that can execute 4-threads per core for a virtual 32-core processor. I'm sure many of us crunchers here in WCG, specially those who are passionate about their crunching, would love to get their hands on a Power7 chip. I'd like to see IBM start and spearhead the SPC revolution in the way that IBM heralded the PC revolution during the circa IBM-XT / IBM-AT computers era.

I propose that IBM make a Power7-based SPC, and make it first available to WCG crunchers. Many possibilities here. For one, WCG crunchers would beta test the SPC environment: the OS, compilers, workLoads, etc. For another, WCG to fashion Power7-based WUs and throw it into the mix, and beta-test those WUs on the SPC. The path to fruition is studded with obstacles, I'm quite sure, but we can start travelling the path toward SPC. Else, well, nVidia or AMD may lead the way to a GPU-based SPC in the future, the GPU being generally recognized as much more powerful than a CPU.

What do you think, WCG crunchers, should we press IBM/WCG for a Power7-based super-PC?

Good day
;