How a Cray-1 Supercomputer Compares to a Raspberry Pi
Roy Longbottom worked for the U.K. covernment’s Central Computer Agency from 1960 to 1993, and “from 1972 to 2022 I produced and ran computer benchmarking and stress testing programs…” Known as the official design authority for the Whetstone benchmark), Longbottom writes that “In 2019 (aged 84), I was recruited as a voluntary member of Raspberry Pi pre-release Alpha testing team.”
And this week — now at age 87 — Longbottom has created a web page titled “Cray 1 supercomputer performance comparisons with home computers, phones and tablets.” And one statistic really captures the impact of our decades of technological progress.
“In 1978, the Cray 1 supercomputer cost $7 Million, weighed 10,500 pounds and had a 115 kilowatt power supply. It was, by far, the fastest computer in the world. The Raspberry Pi costs around $70 (CPU board, case, power supply, SD card), weighs a few ounces, uses a 5 watt power supply and is more than 4.5 times faster than the Cray 1.”
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader bobdevine for sharing the link.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Roy Longbottom worked for the U.K. covernment’s Central Computer Agency from 1960 to 1993, and “from 1972 to 2022 I produced and ran computer benchmarking and stress testing programs…” Known as the official design authority for the Whetstone benchmark), Longbottom writes that “In 2019 (aged 84), I was recruited as a voluntary member of Raspberry Pi pre-release Alpha testing team.”
And this week — now at age 87 — Longbottom has created a web page titled “Cray 1 supercomputer performance comparisons with home computers, phones and tablets.” And one statistic really captures the impact of our decades of technological progress.
“In 1978, the Cray 1 supercomputer cost $7 Million, weighed 10,500 pounds and had a 115 kilowatt power supply. It was, by far, the fastest computer in the world. The Raspberry Pi costs around $70 (CPU board, case, power supply, SD card), weighs a few ounces, uses a 5 watt power supply and is more than 4.5 times faster than the Cray 1.”
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader bobdevine for sharing the link.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.