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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 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. I have always been here. ---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. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --