US regulators OK sale of IBM's x86 server biz to Lenovo

Not all supercomputers are created equal

The latter concerns were probably unfounded, since China already claims the title of the world's most powerful supercomputer. But some Reg readers may recall that regulators raised similar security issues when Lenovo bought IBM's PC business in 2005.

"I know how to make 4 horses pull a cart - I don't know how to make 1024 chickens do it." --Enrico Clementi.

We've gotten a lot better at harnessing the chickens since this statement was made some years ago. But there is still something to it.

There is much more to high performance computing than assembling massive numbers of microprocessors. This shows up on the LINPACK data on Top500.org Web Site, in terms of the fraction of the theoretical peak performance, Rpeak, that can be extracted to solve the problem (the Rmax.)

For the Japanese RIKEN machine, designed for cutting edge scientific computing, this ratio is 93%. For the Chinese Tiahnu-2, this figure is 62%, comparable to what so-called "commodity clusters," achieve. (Commodity clusters are systems assembled from mass market microprocessors and LAN interconnect technology.)

This is not do denigrate the Chinese accomplishments. Simply to point out that a presumption that they translate into technological superiority or commercial success may be unwarranted. In November 2003, the No. 3 spot on the Top 500 List was held by a commodity cluster built at Virginia Tech--the best of some 23 such home-made supercomputers.

Today, there are two, both assembled by Amazon Web Services, , , an application for which commodity clusters are arguably ideally suited.

Misfortune decision

I find unhappy the permission given by US regulator that will give as result troubles, difficulties and intrigues in the future, has been allowed that the "vixen" enters in the "henhouse" of the business server IT, harming the domestic makers X86 gravely, that they will have even less margins of economic benefit, asphysiation the business, good play of IBM that eliminated competition, although to cost of the American business.

Xerox ring any bells?

Wow. IBM is follwing the same path as Xerox and Bell Labs. (and Motorola and RCA and HP and...)

Once mighty leaders of "high tech", now has-been shells of their former selves.

True, both IBM and HP are still the money makers in entire world of IT, but they've gutted their once core businesses. It's now only a matter of time.

Xerox ring any bells?

Wow. IBM is follwing the same path as Xerox and Bell Labs. (and Motorola and RCA and HP and...)

Once mighty leaders of "high tech", now has-been shells of their former selves.

True, both IBM and HP are still the biggest money makers in the entire world of IT, but they've gutted their once core businesses. It's now only a matter of time.

"When System x servers change from IBM to Lenovo, expect exciting changes, and the same peace of mind."

Peace of mind, you mean like 15%+ failure rates right out of the box!!! Great!!

1024 chickens

Now, how many Chicken Mac Nuggets come from 1024 Chickens

And this while

And this while ITAR already has me chary of exchanging technical tips where foreigners can see them on on LinkedIn.

http://www.exportrules.com/itar/exporting-technical-data.html