Re: [FWP] Re: PerlOS

[Bennett Todd <bet@newritz.mordor.net>]

1999-08-03-05:42:06 Ariel Scolnicov:
> There's a perl5.005_03/hints/unicos.sh file in the distribution, so it would
> seem that Perl is available there. However, I've never tried to compile Perl
> on a Cray, much less try to run this program. One of the list's members
> should submit a request for a research grant for computer time to check
> this.
>
> Actually, the closest I've ever come to a Cray is a friend who used one.

I've come rather closer. Two jobs ago, I worked at a place that had a Y-MP
squatting in the middle of the machine room, merrily turning kilowatts into
BTUs. As it turned out it wasn't doing anything else; when we ran into a power
crisis, not enough capacity piped into the machine room and not enough A/C
tonnage to be able to add more, I checked the lastlog on the cray and
discovered nobody had logged into it for a year or more, so we powered it down
and had plenty to run the new pair of Cisco 7513s along with a couple of racks
of Cisco Catalyst 5000 switches. Ended up leaving the Cray powered down until
we could find someone to give it away to.

I came away with the conclusion that in their time, Crays may have been
surprisingly swift boxes, but they suffered from one fatal flaw: since Windows
didn't run on them, they hadn't been driven by the unbelievable pressures that
have pushed the PC market. Trying (and failing) to go fast enough to run
Windows acceptably quickly has fueled an absolutely outlandish growth in CPU
power. The analysts who had gotten the Cray for doing Monte Carlo simulations
had moved to Windows boxes; they were maxing them out right as I started
talking with them, so I set 'em up with Linux on fast PC hardware and they
were happy as could be.

-Bennett

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