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- Path: sparky!uunet!sun-barr!ames!agate!dog.ee.lbl.gov!ucbvax!hplabs!hplextra!hplntx!hplmf.hpl.hp.com!fouts
- From: fouts@hplmf.hpl.hp.com (Martin Fouts)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.super
- Subject: Re: Fujitsu and America
- Keywords: Supercomputer, parallel processing, foreign
- Message-ID: <Bs65Cx.ML9@hplabs.hpl.hp.com>
- Date: 29 Jul 92 21:07:43 GMT
- References: <153j3gINN86a@early-bird.think.com> <1992Jul28.152513.27457@athena.mit.edu> <40173@skye.dcs.ed.ac.uk> <1992Jul29.181851.12025@news.eng.convex.com>
- Sender: news@hplabs.hpl.hp.com (HPL News Posting Service)
- Reply-To: fouts@hpl.hp.com
- Distribution: comp.sys.super
- Organization: Hewlett-Packard Labs
- Lines: 44
-
- In article <1992Jul29.181851.12025@news.eng.convex.com>,
- jgardner@convex.com (John B. Gardner) writes:
- |> [ In response to remarks about the US gov not buying Japanese
- supercomputers].
- |>
- |> Hold on a minute. As easy as it would be for me to do flag waving about
- |> American jobs and so forth (which I believe in), I believe there's a logical
- |> reason for the U.S. government to mandate U.S. manufactured supercomputers
- |> for many installations.
- |>
- |> Namely this; A very large number of supercomputers purchased by the govt.
- |> are for military or security operations (note, I don't *know* this, but I'd
- |> say it's a pretty safe bet). Relying on a foreign power for support, parts,
- |> maintenance, etc. of a component that would be critical in wartime would be
- |> extremely dangerous.
- |>
- |> Now i hardly expect we will ever go to war with Japan, but lines of
- |> comunication and shipping capabilities could be seriously hampered if we
- |> were at war with _anyone_.
- |>
-
- Sigh.
-
- 1) Supercomputers are not widely used in command and control situations
- because they don't have the high mean time to failure.
-
- 2) Most US supercomputers are used for research which would probably
- stop in the kind of war being suggested above, and certainly not
- critical to the prosecution of such a war.
-
- 3) Not buying supercomputers for command and control does not imply
- not buying supercomputers for research.
-
- Just because the NRO needs to function in a war doesn't mean NASA
- can't buy a supercomputer for computational chemistry.
-
- --
- Martin Fouts | M/S 1U-14
- Member of Technical Staff | HP Laboratories
- EMAIL: fouts@hpl.hp.com ! MAIL: P.O. Box 10490
- PHONE: (415) 857-2971 | SHIP: 1501 Page Mill Road
- FAX: (415) 857-8526 | Palo Alto, CA 94304-1126
-
- novae erratae!
-