Here we have a slightly different episode of The Computer Chronicles. While normally the show takes a look at the more personal end of the computer revolution – how individuals and small businesses use various machines, sometimes breaking into big business where it seems relevant, the show tends to not focus on the upper end of computing – mainframes and supercomputers.
This is one of those rare episodes that does focus on the top end of computing – in this case, the supercomputers of 1984, and the future of the supercomputer concept.
Indeed, shown in this episode are the fastest computers to exist in 1984 – the Supercomputers of the United States and Japan. Top tier machines in their day that, due to the natural march of technology, can now easily be beaten in calculation power by your cell phone.
It’s quite an interesting episode, on a whole, due to the discussion of the future of supercomputers – one of the few cases such speculation became a reality, at least in regards to parallel processing. Maybe not so much cooling chips with liquid nitrogen (although that’s not unheard of in computing) but the basic ideas of progress were pretty accurate here.
Also interesting is the comparison between the American and Japanese supercomputer industries – remember, this was back in a time when the United States somewhat feared the takeover of the computer market (among others) by the Japanese.
I’d say this one is definitely worth a watch. A damned good look at the topic, and for one of the “all talk” kind of Computer Chronicles episodes, an interesting one. At least, to me.
Enjoy.