Scripted HTML version of Foils prepared 27 August 1996

Foil 169 Anecdotes from HPCC Software Industry Arena

From CPS615-Introduction-Course,Driving Technology and HPCC Current Status and Futures CPS615 Basic Simulation Track for Computational Science -- Fall Semester 96. by Geoffrey C. Fox *
Anecdotes from Thinking Machines (TMC) April 94 before the fall
  • "They would like to be a software company but you can only sell software if bundled with hardware"
  • Customers did not buy TMC hardware because TMC's software was too good and so one couldn't then get the federal grants to improve parallel systems software
Anecdote from Digital September 94:
  • Digital cannot make money on their scientific software package for alpha workstations
  • If Digital charged true cost of development and maintenance, users would make do with good (but not optimized or as complete) public domain software
  • So if workstation market not viable for simulation software, how can much smaller MPP market lead to viable business plans?

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