The difficulty with parallel computing is familiar to anyone who's been on a committee. More people can actually slow things down because time is wasted organizing everyone. Reducing that flaw is the idea behind Sun's S3.MP, a new technology consisting of a network that hooks together hundreds of workstations and a chip that allows the workstations to cooperate without fuss. The result, says project leader Jeff Rulifson, is "supercomputing performance at workstation prices."
ELECTRIC WORD
All Tied Up on the Eastern Front
Network of Power
