A killer micro is a microprocessor-based machine that infringes on mini, mainframe, or supercomputer performance turf. It originally referred to the replacement of vector supercomputers built with bipolar technology by Massively Parallel Processors (MPP) assembled from a larger number of lower performing microprocessors. These systems faced initial skepticism, based on the assumption that applications do not have significant parallelism, because of Amdahl's law, but the success of early systems such as nCUBE and the fast progress in microprocessor performance following Moore's law led to a fast replacement.
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and large-scale transaction processing. A mainframe computer is large but not as large as a supercomputer and has more processing power than some other classes of computers, such as minicomputers, servers, workstations, and personal computers. Most large-scale computer-system architectures were established in the 1960s, but they continue to evolve. Mainframe computers are often used as servers.
A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS). Since 2017, supercomputers have existed which can perform over 1017 FLOPS (a hundred quadrillion FLOPS, 100 petaFLOPS or 100 PFLOPS). For comparison, a desktop computer has performance in the range of hundreds of gigaFLOPS (1011) to tens of teraFLOPS (1013). Since November 2017, all of the world's fastest 500 supercomputers run on Linux-based operating systems. Additional research is being conducted in the United States, the European Union, Taiwan, Japan, and China to build faster, more powerful and technologically superior exascale supercomputers.
Fujitsu Limited is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. It is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the largest in Japan, in 2021.
A superminicomputer, colloquially supermini, is a high-end minicomputer. The term is used to distinguish the emerging 32-bit architecture midrange computers introduced in the mid to late 1970s from the classical 16-bit systems that preceded them. The development of these computers was driven by the need of applications to address larger memory. The term midicomputer had been used earlier to refer to these systems. Virtual memory was often an additional criteria that was considered for inclusion in this class of system. The computational speed of these machines was significantly greater than the 16-bit minicomputers and approached the performance of small mainframe computers. The name has at times been described as a "frivolous" term created by "marketeers" that lacks a specific definition. Describing a class of system has historically been seen as problematic: "In the computer kingdom, taxonomic classification of equipment is more of a black art than a science." There is some disagreement about which systems should be included in this class. The origin of the name is uncertain.
"Man or Astro-man?" is an American surf rock group that was formed in Auburn, Alabama in the early 1990s and came to prominence over the following decade.
Bell's law of computer classes formulated by Gordon Bell in 1972 describes how types of computing systems form, evolve and may eventually die out. New classes of computers create new applications resulting in new markets and new industries.
The Avalanche is a 2006 compilation album by indie rock singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens, consisting of outtakes and other recordings from the sessions for his album Illinois, released the previous year. The title song "The Avalanche" was also a bonus track on the Illinois vinyl and iTunes release.
Experiment Zero is an album by the American band Man or Astro-man? It was released in 1996 by Touch and Go Records.
Amazing Thrills! in 3-Dimension is a Man or Astro-man? promo 7" that was given away with the first 1,000 copies of their debut album, Is It ... Man or Astroman?. It was released on Estrus Records in 1993 on black vinyl only. By some counts, 1,000 copies is a generous estimate, as the Estrus website places the actual number pressed as only 400. This is the first time Man or Astro-man's cover of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 theme song was released. It was later re-released on Destroy All Astromen!.
Return to Chaos is a Man or Astro-man? 7-inch EP released on Homo Habilis Records/One Louder Records in 1995. It was released in a manilla folder style sleeve. The US version is marked "Top Secret" and the UK version is marked "State Secret". It was released on clear vinyl and black vinyl.
What Remains Inside a Black Hole is a Man or Astro-man? compilation album. It features tracks that originally appeared on 7-inch EPs. It was released in Australia on Au-Go-Go Records and remains difficult to find in the US. In 2001, Estrus Records released a compilation entitled Beyond the Black Hole, which features many of the same songs.
Man or Astro-man? in Orbit is a Man or Astro-man? 7-inch EP released on Shake It Records in 1995. It was released on clear vinyl and black vinyl. On the record sleeve the band members are listed as "Mission Astronauts" rather than musicians since the title implies that the band will be in orbit.
The IBM Linux Technology Center (LTC) is an organization focused on development for the Linux kernel and related open-source software projects. In 1999, IBM created the LTC to combine its software developers interested in Linux and other open-source software into a single organization. Much of the LTC's early effort was focused on making "all of its server platforms Linux friendly." The LTC collaborated with the Linux community to make Linux run optimally on processor architectures such as x86, mainframe, PowerPC, and Power ISA. In recent years, the focus of the LTC has expanded to include several other open source initiatives.
Erich Bloch was a German-born American electrical engineer and administrator. He was involved with developing IBM's first transistorized supercomputer, 7030 Stretch, and mainframe computer, System/360. He served as director of the National Science Foundation from 1984 to 1990.
Johnson Barnes III, better known by his stage name Blu, is an American rapper and record producer from Los Angeles, California. He performs as one half of the duo Blu & Exile, which was formed in 2007 and whom released their debut studio album, Below the Heavens in July of that year. He is also the forefront member of the California-based collective, Dirty Science. He is recognized for his collaborative albums with record producers Mainframe, Ta'Raach, Bombay, Damu the Fudgemunk, Madlib, Nottz, and Union Analogtronics.
Computer hardware comprises the physical parts of a computer, such as the central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), motherboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, and computer case. It includes external devices such as a monitor, mouse, keyboard, and speakers.
The HITAC S-3000 is a former family of vector supercomputers, which was developed, manufactured and marketed by Hitachi. Announced in April 1992, the family succeeded the HITAC S-820. The S-3000 family comprised the low-end and mid-range S-3600 models and the high-end S-3800 models. Unlike Hitachi's previous generations of supercomputers, the S-3000 family was marketed outside Japan.
Advanced Comprehensive Operating System (ACOS) is a family of mainframe computer operating systems developed by NEC for the Japanese market. It consists of three systems, based on the General Comprehensive Operating System family developed by General Electric, Honeywell, and Bull. Two of these systems, ACOS-2 and ACOS-4 are still sold, although only ACOS-4 is under active development. ACOS-6 is an obsolete high-end mainframe platform, which ceased active development in the early 2000s.
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