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The Platform reports that CPU export restrictions to Chinese supercomputing centers may have backfired. Tianhe-2 has remained the world's top supercomputer for the last five iterations of the TOP500 list using a heterogeneous architecture that mixes Intel's Xeon and Xeon Phi chips. Tianhe-2 will likely be upgraded to Tianhe-2A within the next year (rather than by the end of 2015 as originally planned), nearly doubling its peak performance from 54.9 petaflops to around 100 petaflops, while barely raising peak power usage. However, instead of using a new Intel Xeon Phi chip, a homegrown "China Accelerator" and novel architecture will be used.
A few details about the accelerator are known:
Unlike other [digital signal processor (DSP)] efforts that were aimed at snapping into supercomputing systems, this one is not a 32-bit part, but is capable of supporting 64-bit and further, it can also support both single (as others do) and double-precision. As seen below, the performance for both single and double precision is worth remarking upon (around 2.4 single, 4.8 double teraflops for one card) in a rather tiny power envelope. It will support high bandwidth memory as well as PCIe 3.0. In other words, it gives GPUs and Xeon Phi a run for the money—but the big question has far less to do with hardware capability and more to do with how the team at NUDT will be able to build out the required software stack to support applications that can gobble millions of cores on what is already by far the most core-dense machine on the planet.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday July 17 2015, @10:58AM
Hurts to say, but yes... i use linux at home and looove it, but can't really recommend it to others unless they have the interest in experimenting with it simply because i don't have the time to drop everything and help them if they get confused about something (but it is the same with windows too, though.... i can't recommend it either).
I haven't used apple products much, but it seems like the user experience is better/easier there.
I'm still trying to find the 'perfect linux', lol.
If the Bill and Melina Gates foundation was TRULY interested in the betterment of society, they would invest in open source, but it is really a business partner with MS, and a joke tax loophole.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @12:50PM
Joke tax? Does it depend on how funny the joke is?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Saturday July 18 2015, @06:31AM
Actually, not to toot my own horn TOO much, I've found its really not hard to make a "perfect" Windows box that even if the user is an ID10T you really don't have a thing to fear, in fact its just about my most popular service and I get a ton of referrals just to perform this service.
So how do I do it? Well it involves a little prepwork, specifically knowing their Gmail (or setting them up one if they don't have one) along with a PaleMoon account. What these are for will be obvious in a few. You install Windows, making sure you have it set up with a separate drive which houses their documents/pics/music etc. You set up their browsers (in this case I use Comodo Dragon and PaleMoon) and have both set up to autosync their settings. if they have any "must have" programs? Install them NOW. Once I have everything set up so that everybody is happy? I set up a hidden backup capsule using Paragon Backup & Recovery Free, lock the disc image I make at this time along with setting up a backup schedule.
So what does this do? It means no matter what happens short of hardware failure you can put it back to the original config with NO worries about lost docs, pics, or bookmarks AND you can send it back (depending on the drive size) up to 3 months with again NO risk of anything they care about being lost! Now when you combine this with my usual Comodo AV and Comodo DNS to keep out the nasties? Well again not to brag but I have systems out there going back 7 years that are purring just as nice as the day they left the shop.
As I've said a million times "Linux is free if your time is worthless" and that isn't a slight. If you have the time to mess with it? Its just like rebuilding an old car, you can make it anything you want. But most of us do NOT have the time nor desire to make the time investment to learn and administer an OS, not when we can get something like Windows and just not have to fool with the thing. COULD I have a perfectly running Linux system? Sure but when I get off after a hard days work I want to watch TV, play my games, do what I want to do WITHOUT having to do anything more than flip the switch. With Windows I get that, with Linux I do not, simple as that.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday July 18 2015, @10:21PM
The same is true for me, but i do it with linux: I don't watch tv much at all, i watch the stuff on my harddrives. The games i play work on linux, especially now with steam. I have had to mess with windows far too much: my wife has the same laptop i do, with windows. She is not a techie. Her laptop is now almost useless because she doesn't know not to click on certain things, so she gets the viruses, etc.
She says 'Linux is useless because you can't do anything on it', and yet she now has to use my laptop to do her online activities.
I feel at home and do anything I want on my computer.
To each his own.... my linux on the desktop year was 1999, the year before my son was born. Never looked back.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Saturday July 18 2015, @10:55PM
And that is fine...until you have to do the upgrade deathmarch due to the insanely low support cycle of your average Linux. Lets take Ubuntu for example, since that is supposedly the "user friendly" Linux and compare it to the oldest version of Windows still supported, Windows Vista. Now I can take Windows Vista RTM and update it to current and ALL of the drivers that worked on the start WILL be working at the end and will continue working for the life of the OS (and even after,just for shits and giggles I upgraded a system from Vista all the way to 8.1 and all the drivers worked throughout) now for you to just keep the same level of patch support with Ubuntu you'd have to go from 6.10 to 15.4 which IIRC is FOURTEEN releases that you as a consumer would have been expected to apply...now do you really think the drivers that worked in Ubuntu 6 will be working even in ubuntu 10, much less 15? I can tell you for a fact they won't be working by Ubuntu 8 because I've done the "Hairyfeet Challenge" multiple times with bog standard systems here at the shop and have yet to have Ubuntu (or any other distro) last more than 2 upgrades without crapping on one or more of its drivers.
I'm sure you've gotten so used to fixing driver issues on upgrade you don't even notice it, its like how we Windows users are used to doing our backups the second Tuesday of every month, but spending my time "googling for fixes" every release is NOT how I want to spend a weekend. But if you want to try it yourself feel free to grab some old junker and take The Hairyfeet Challenge and see for yourself. I really wish it weren't so as Windows licenses suck for system builders but its a fact, Torvalds driver model is shite.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday July 19 2015, @01:39AM
Except for the times where Linux support is better...
...using Windows xp one time on my wife's computer ( quite a few years ago) I bought a printer that was both xp and Linux compatible.
Install the drivers for the printer:wasted an hour rebooting every time it installed each driver (printer, scanner, fax, etc) and also having to update internet explorer for the printer!
Plugged the printer into my Linux box and 20 seconds later, it was Installed and fully ready to use.
I'm using(trying) Arch(antergos) currently and with their rolling release, the driver problem shouldn't really exist (or so I think).
Anywho, I guess I'd really rather go through the hairyfeet challenge with Linux then the kill me now challenge with Windows (the modem driver doesn't come pre-exisisting in Windows... would you like to download it from the internet!!!!!!) Sure MS, show me how to download the driver for the internet when I have no driver for the internet connection!?!?!!!
Guess we just disagree. :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---