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From: Robert Myers on 23 Mar 2010 01:08
On Mar 23, 1:04 am, Penang <kalamb...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 22, 1:38 am, Anne & Lynn Wheeler <l...(a)garlic.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Mike Jr <n00s...(a)comcast.net> writes:
> > >  Thank you.  In the far distant past, IBM had a machine called the SP2
> > > that used a shared nothing architecture to get around the SMP shared
> > > memory bottleneck.  The SP2 was a supercomputer.
>
> > before SP2 ... there was SP1 ... some of the genesis mentioned in this
> > jan92 meeting in ellison's conference roomhttp://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13
>
> > and this old emailhttp://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#medusa
>
> > before it was transferred and positioned as numerical intensive only.
>
> > recent thread in c.a.http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#47Nonlinearsystems and nonlocal supercomputinghttp://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#48Nonlinearsystems and nonlocal supercomputinghttp://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#49Nonlinearsystems and nonlocal supercomputing
>
> > as mentioned in the above thread ... the reason for doing message
> > passing was the rios chip set didn't support cache consistency for
> > shared memory (aka it "scale" past one). the engineering manager that we
> > reported to when starting the project had only relatively recently moved
> > to be head of somerset (joint motorola, ibm, apple, etc) that would do
> > single chip 801/risc and eventually support for cache consistency and
> > shared memory. as mentioned in the above thread, had also been doing
> > some stuff with SCI (which was numa shared memory) ... but until had a
> > chip that cache consistency semantics ... there wasn't much to do.
>
> > in any case, within hrs of this email ... the hammer fell, the effort
> > transferred, we were told we couldn't work on anything with more than
> > four processorshttp://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006x.html#email920129
>
> > it was then announced as product for numerical intensive only ... some
> > past press ... one from 17feb92http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#6000clusters
>
> > and another from later that summerhttp://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#6000clusters2
>
> > and we were gone within weeks of the above (got paid to leave and not
> > come back ... extra enducement was structured as sabbatical w/some
> > benefits to retirement). recent mention getting letter on the
> > last day claiming was promoted the following day ... this was after a
> > decade of being told that there were no promotions in my futurehttp://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009r.html#6Haveyou ever though about taking a sabbatical?http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#20Wouldyou fight?
>
> > the SCI NUMA (multi-core) flavor from the 90s was multiple (2-4,
> > single-core) chips on the same board with shared L2 ... that were then
> > interconnected with SCI. sequent and data general both did four intel
> > processor boards with SCI & convex did a two hp risc processor boards
> > (with SCI).
>
> > note that some of same the people involved in transferring the project
> > and telling us that we couldn't work on anything with than four
> > processors ... had also been involved in blocking our bidding on NSFNET
> > RFP; a couple recent references (i.e. director of NSF even wrote letter
> > to company execs ... but that just aggravated the internal politics)http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#64LPARs:More or Less?http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#80Entrypoint for a Mainframe?
>
> > --
> > 42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970
>
> So what happened next?
>
> You guys got the severance checks and just go home?
>
> That's it?
>
> Wow !

Yea, IBM!

Robert.
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler on 23 Mar 2010 09:38
Mike Jr <n00spam(a)comcast.net> writes:
> Wow. Back in the 90's I did some high level consulting for IBM up in
> Somers. That was just around the time that the main frame business
> imploded. I was both appalled by how decisions had been focused
> through the main frame lens and how innovation in other labs, like
> Toronto, was stifled. A bunch of good people trying to do the right
> thing and getting nowhere. I heard numerous stories very similar to
> what you describe. It was disheartening.

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#50 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#52 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking

I've posted before in the (very early) 90s about periodically going by
somers and dropping in on various people (somers was staff/executives)
and having long discussion about what needed to be done ... and they
were able to very clearly articulate the issues ... and then going back
a month or so later and nothing had happened. another possible
explanation we had was that several was striving to delay change until
after their retirement (since they were earning a large premium based on
decades of experience with the status quo). Some of the people had
corner offices on the top floor that had magnificent views of the area.

in the same time-frame, one of the big three had C4 task force to look
at what they had to do to remake themselves and make them more
competitive (especially those coming in from the other side of the
pacific). they were looking at heavily leveraging technology to totally
remake themselves and invited in various technology vendors to
participate. One of the scenarios that they highlighted was 7-8 yr
product cycle from idea to rolling off the line. The competition had cut
the product cycle to 3-4yrs and looked to be cutting it in half again,
allowing the competition to be significantly more agile and adaptable
responding to changing consumer tastes and market conditions ... as well
as be much more quickly adopt new technologies. I would chide some of
the mainframe brethern that they were suffering from similar operations
and so how could they expect to provide any advice.

Another example was that different parts of the auto industry was on
different development/cycles ... and changes in industry was resulting
in designs that had much tighter tolerances. Examples were finished
design ... still took so long, that there were instances that several
components had changed and no longer fit in the original design ...
requiring expensive redesign/rework and delay.

So we roll forward 20yrs ... and although the problems and solutions
were well articulated and understood ... nearly all the stakeholders
were entrenched in the status quo ... that they were unable to change
and adapt.

a few past posts mentioning C4 task force:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#3 IBM interprets Lean development's Kaizen with new MCIF product
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#31 Why are z/OS people reluctant to use z/OS UNIX?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#14 360 programs on a z/10
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#47 z9 / z10 instruction speed(s)

I had also sponsored Boyd's briefings at IBM ... and major theme that
runs thru his OODA-loops are being agile and quickly adapt to changing
conditions and competition. Desert storm also happened in that era and
one of the magizines had an article on Boyd titled "the fight to change
how america fights" ... and the crop of majors & cols. as Boyd's "jedi
knights". he has been credited with the strategy & tactics for desert
storm ... there are references about major issue/problem in the current
conflict was that Boyd had died during the interim. misc. past posts &
references from around the web references Boyd and/or OODA-loops
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html

A reference to John:

"There are two career paths in front of you, and you have to choose
which path you will follow. One path leads to promotions, titles, and
positions of distinction.... The other path leads to doing things that
are truly significant for the Air Force, but the rewards will quite
often be a kick in the stomach because you may have to cross swords with
the party line on occasion. You can't go down both paths, you have to
choose. Do you want to be a man of distinction or do you want to do
things that really influence the shape of the Air Force? <b>To be or to
do</b>, that is the question." Colonel John R. Boyd, USAF 1927-1997

From the dedication of Boyd Hall, United States Air Force Weapons
School, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. 17 September 1999

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler on 23 Mar 2010 11:38

Penang <kalambong(a)gmail.com> writes:
> So what happened next?
>
> You guys got the severance checks and just go home?
>
> That's it?
>
> Wow !

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#50 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#52 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#55 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking

so we got better deal than other people that were turfed even a few
months later.

now two of the people also referred to in this jan92 meeting
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13

later depart and show up at a small client/server startup responsible
for something called commerce server. we get brought in as consultants
because they want to do payment transactions on their server. part of
that effort included deployment something called a payment gateway ...
some past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#gateway

the small client/server startup had also invented something they called
"SSL" they wanted to use ... we had to map the "SSL" stuff to payment
transactions as well as doing security and business walkthrus of various
pieces of the infrastructure ... including some of these new things
calling themselve Certification Authorities. At one point I'm in front
of class room full of recent graduate young employees (all worth many
times more than we are) trying to instruct about how to use TCP/IP in
secure & business critical dataprocessing.

older long-winded post mention some of the thread between
loosely-coupled, sysplex, clusters, supercomputers and
electronic commerce
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001i.html#52

in the mid-90s, somewhat because of having done this stuff frequently
now called "electronic commerce" ... we get brought into the x9a10
financial standard working group that had been given the requirement to
preserve the integrity of the financial infrastructure. part of the
effort involved doing detailed, end-to-end, threat and vulnerability
studies of a number of retail payment environments (including internet).
we attempted to address majority of all threats in the x9.59 financial
transaction standard ... some past references
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#x959

also since having done a lot of dbms & scaleup work in the past ... we
get brought in to commerce dept ... to do some consulting on new
generation of stuff for the 2000 census (they were replacing
dataprocessing that had gone in for the 1980 census)

then, somewhat as a result of x9.59 financial standard work, late in the
last century, we get brought into NSCC (since merged with DTC for DTCC)
to look at doing something similar for exchanges and trading
systems. However, part way into the effort, it was suspended because a
side effect of security & integrity was significantly improved
visibility and transparency ... which apparently is totally antithetical
to trading culture.

Now, in congressional hearings last year into the Madoff ponzi scheme
.... the person that had been trying for a decade to get the SEC to do
something about Madoff ... testified that while new regulations are
required .... that significantly more important is changing how things
operate to make them much more visible and transparent (he had started
trying to get SEC to do something about Madoff about the same time we
had been brought into NSCC).

misc. posts mentioning madoff stuff:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#65 What can agencies such as the SEC do to insure us that something like Madoff's Ponzi scheme will never happen again?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#73 What can we learn from the meltdown?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#80 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#0 Audit II: Two more scary words: Sarbanes-Oxley
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#20 Decision Making or Instinctive Steering?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#29 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#39 'WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GLOBAL MELTDOWN'
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#51 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#0 PNC Financial to pay CEO $3 million stock bonus
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#3 Congress Set to Approve Pay Cap of $500,000
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#37 NEW SEC (Enforcement) MANUAL, A welcome addition
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#42 Bernard Madoff Is Jailed After Pleading Guilty -- are there more "Madoff's" out there?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#61 Quiz: Evaluate your level of Spreadsheet risk
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#62 Is Wall Street World's Largest Ponzi Scheme where Madoff is Just a Poster Child?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#63 Do bonuses foster unethical conduct?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#73 Should Glass-Steagall be reinstated?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#75 Whistleblowing and reporting fraud
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#0 What is swap in the financial market?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#15 The background reasons of Credit Crunch
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#36 Architectural Diversity
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#37 How do you see ethics playing a role in your organizations current or past?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#40 Architectural Diversity
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#53 Are the "brightest minds in finance" finally onto something?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#2 CEO pay sinks - Wall Street Journal/Hay Group survey results just released
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#29 What is the real basis for business mess we are facing today?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#31 What is the real basis for business mess we are facing today?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#43 On whom or what would you place the blame for the sub-prime crisis?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#45 Artificial Intelligence to tackle rogue traders
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#47 TARP Disbursements Through April 10th
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#49 Is the current downturn cyclic or systemic?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#51 On whom or what would you place the blame for the sub-prime crisis?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#65 Just posted third article about toxic assets in a series on the current financial crisis
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#67 Just posted third article about toxic assets in a series on the current financial crisis
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#1 Future of Financial Mathematics?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#5 Do the current Banking Results in the US hide a grim truth?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#29 Transparency and Visibility
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#33 Treating the Web As an Archive
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#17 REGULATOR ROLE IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT FINANCIAL SCANDALS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#23 Why are z/OS people reluctant to use z/OS UNIX? (Are settlements a good argument for overnight batch COBOL ?)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#54 64 Cores -- IBM is showing a prototype already
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#60 In the USA "financial regulator seeks power to curb excess speculation."
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009j.html#12 IBM identity manager goes big on role control
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009j.html#30 An Amazing Document On Madoff Said To Have Been Sent To SEC In 2005
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009m.html#89 Audits V: Why did this happen to us ;-(
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009o.html#71 "Rat Your Boss" or "Rats to Riches," the New SEC
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#51 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#57 MasPar compiler and simulator
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009r.html#47 70 Years of ATM Innovation
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009s.html#45 Audits VII: the future of the Audit is in your hands
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#8 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#77 Madoff Whistleblower Book
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#33 The 2010 Census

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler on 23 Mar 2010 11:57
Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn(a)garlic.com> writes:
> decades of experience with the status quo). Some of the people had
> corner offices on the top floor that had magnificent views of the area.

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#50 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#52 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#55 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#56 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking

oh ... one of the people with top floor corner office had been given
responsibility for SAA ... which has been characterized as attempting
to stall client/server and preserve the communication groups terminal
emulation paradigm ... some past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#emulation

as we had earlier came up with 3-tier networking architecture and was
out making customer executives pitches ... and taking lots of barbs
from communication group (and token-ring forces)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#3tier

we thot it only appropriate to periodically drop in and hassle him about
how long did he think they can keep their finger in the dike.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970
From: Mike Jr on 23 Mar 2010 21:57
On Mar 23, 9:38 am, Anne & Lynn Wheeler <l...(a)garlic.com> wrote:
> Mike Jr <n00s...(a)comcast.net> writes:
[snip]

You nailed Somers. They wasted more space in hallways than most other
places had space. Pretty place though.

By chance, you wouldn't be related to Earl Wheeler? He was the guy
that brought me in.

Regarding Boyd and his decision loop you are again right on. It's
what the US military is trying to do to the Taliban.

The people I respect the most, a colonel in space command who must go
nameless and a couple-three Ph.Ds that invented GPS, all put mission
before career to the great benefit of us all.

--Mike Jr.



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