🚀 go-pugleaf

In comp.sys.transputer <moses@nadc.navy.mil> writes

> This brings up a simple question: Who wants massively parallel
> machines anyhow? Computer Scientists and Engineers experiment
> with and develop systems - what are they used for? I'm all
> for research for its own sake, but there are actually people
> out there who want to apply it. I suppose the questions are more
> along these lines: What are the foreseen uses of large parallel
> machines? Is this in line with current research? What should 
> they be used for (besides weather prediction, Mandelbrot sets, etc.)?
>
> Just wondering

There are a large number of applications for large parallel machines
which are ideally suited to parallelism.  For example, Edinburough
Parallel Computing centre has a directory about an inch thick of its
current projects, with Southampton University also doing a fair amount
(not to mention Cambridge University and a number of other institutions
in the UK alone too numerous to mention) doing quite a bit of parallel
applications, let alone in the parallel processing research field. 
This is because there are a number of applications which really chew up
vast amounts of computing resources (e.g.  Cellular Automata, Fluid Flow)
where places like Shell Oil in Amsterdam have a 400 transputer machine
to handle applications such as these where even your CRAYs would step
back and think twice about doing.  I suggest you try and contact some
of these people if you genuinely are interested.

Granted the transputer is popular among engineers and scientists who 
need more power than their PC can give, but ever thought that this is
the one fairly cheap method whereby such researchers can get their hands
on computing power at a cheaper price (we cant all afford CRAYs etc).
Research always has been notoriously short of funding, and parallel
processing provides the power at a cheaper price.

Anyway, I feel that parallel processing is where the future of processing
lies.  Ever thought what would happen when the limits of nature were
reached and single processors could be made to run no faster?  Man's
desire for faster, better and better would soon turn to "put more on
the job".  However, enough idle chatter.....

Alex
al@perisl.uucp

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this article are my own and should
not be taken as that of my workplace.