RE: Can you say "World War III?"(You guys are wrong)

And from today's news:
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Wednesday August 2 6:35 PM ET
Navy Lets IBM Supercomputer Be Its Umbrella 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news)
said on Wednesday the U.S. Department of Defense paid $18 million for one of
the world's fastest supercomputers to help Navy vessels avoid maritime
disasters like the one portrayed in the film ``The Perfect Storm.''

Code-named ``Blue Wave,'' the new IBM RS/6000 SP will rank as the most
powerful supercomputer at the Defense Department and the fourth-fastest in
operation anywhere in the world. It will enable the U.S. Navy to create the
most detailed model of the world's oceans ever constructed.

The research performed by ``Blue Wave'' is expected to improve maritime
storm forecasting as well as search and rescue efforts for naval vessels.

In June, Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM unveiled the fastest computer in the world,
able to process more in a second than one person with a calculator could do
in 10 million years.

That supercomputer was designed for the U.S. government to simulate nuclear
weapons tests. It was made for the Department of Energy's Accelerated
Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). IBM sold the system, which occupies
floor space equivalent to two basketball courts and weighs as much as 17
elephants, to the DOE for $110 million.

The U.S. Navy computer, which can process two trillion calculations per
second, will model ocean depth, temperature and wave heights to new levels
of accuracy and detail, boosting the ability of meteorologists to predict
storms at sea.

``The Perfect Storm,'' a best-selling book by Sebastian Junger, told the
tale of the Andrea Gail, a fishing vessel at sea off the coast of
Newfoundland during a deadly Nor'easter that killed the entire crew. The
recently released film version showed the boat capsizing and sinking after
failing to crest a 100-foot swell because the captain had received only
sketchy information about the approaching storm and waves.

In 1999, IBM became the leader in the traditional supercomputer market. IBM
now has about 30 percent of that market, in which some 250 computers that
range in price from $2 million to $100 million or more are sold every year,
for use in weather predictions, research and encryption
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At least it's in the 'family'



-----Original Message-----
From: mcrump@ballfoster.com [mailto:mcrump@ballfoster.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2000 10:40 AM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Can you say "World War III?"(You guys are wrong)




Ok, it's at the risk of making this an OS war and
 it is a little dated but don't forget what happened
in 1998 with the USS Yorktown............

<snipped from ZDNET>
                                                      
 <Let me lay it out for you. The Windows operating    
 <systems don't work all that well. Yes, I mean all   
 <versions of Windows--including NT 4.0. Don't        
 believe <me? Ask the USS Yorktown's sailors.         
                                                      
                                                      
 <Yorktown, an Aegis missile cruiser--the most        
 <technically advanced surface ships in the US        
 Navy--was <off the Virginia shore on maneuvers last  
 fall when for <almost three hours it went dead in    
 the water. What <happened? A single bad entry of     
 zero in a database <program led to a catastrophic NT 
 crash that left large <parts of Yorktown's           
 Engineering Control System <Equipment and Integrated 
 Bridge Systems network <dead, along with the ship's  
 advanced propulsion <system.                         
                                                      
                                                      
 <end snip>                                           
                                                      
                                                      
 Here was an example of a non-AS/400's opinion of     
 NT.........                                          
                                                      
                                                      
 Here is the original article from Government         
 news......                                           
                                                      
                                                      
                                                      
 http://www.gcn.com/archives/gcn/1998/july13/cov2.htm 
                                                      








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