Intel wants to get into heavy petascaling

Lest we forget...

Intel has dabbled successfully with HPC in the distant past. Aided by generous DARPA funding, Intel created the Paragon series of supercomputers, culminating in the first several teraflop systems ever constructed. The ASCI Option Red Supercomputer, delivered to Sandia National Laboratories circa 1996, was (if memory serves) a 1.8 Tflop system. It was one of the first, if not the first, to achieve this level of peak performance. That being said... Intel/SSD (Supercomputer Systems Division) was decommissioned shortly after ASCI Red's delivery, because Intel's upper management saw no future/profit in the technology. This perception was not due to short-sightedness or disinterest on the part of upper management. Our SSD corporate culture was so unique, and so far removed from the culture prevalent throughout the rest of Intel, that we were simply unable to convey our vision for the future. There weren't enough common points of reference. We didn't speak the same dialect. My point? I will be very impressed if Intel is able to "run with the big dogs" before spending at least a decade re-acquiring the appropriate personnel and re-evolving an appropriate micro-culture. It is good that Intel has learned tenacity from Itanium. They'll be needing to apply some of these "learnings" to HPC.

- The Garret