1994 MIT Student Workshop on Scalable Computing

Affirmative: Round 2

Ellen Spertus

Fortune 500 Needs

• Desktop business applications
  • Word processors
  • Spreadsheets
  • Email
• Distributed applications
  • Document sharing
  • Databases
    • personnel
    • accounting
    • inventory
    • customer records

Key Criteria for Companies

• Cost
• Scalability
• System availability
• Software availability

Cost

• Price/performance
• Old hardware can be used
• Development time

Scalability

• The importance of prototyping
• Successful systems get used even more
  • More users
  • More features
• Can expand for needs of future applications

Availability

• Reliability
• Heterogeneity

Software

• Applications
• Tools
  • Debuggers
  • CASE

Factors Inhibiting ISV Support for MPPs

• Low market volumes (1992)
  • shipped: 463
  • installed base: 2219
• Niche-oriented markets
  • Cost of software development
  • Cost of maintenance
  • Immature system software and limited development tools

The World Cup

• Hardware
  • 1000 Sun workstations (scalable)
  • 10 cities (physically distributed)
• Feature: News service
  • World Cup history
  • Up-to-the-minute statistics
  • Full-motion video