NCSA project usage on machines in FY94. Shared memory mutiprocessors offer much faster interprocessor communications via high-speed memory backplanes and allow very good performance and high efficiency, but these systems do not currently scale to as many processors as the distributed memory machines. NCSA's commitment From an applications development point of view, we have observed that most applications optimized for vector processors also become good performers on superscalar workstation-level machines. This is particularly true on the next generation microprocessors such as the SGI Power Challenge R8000. See Figure 2 below.
Industrial users require a wide spectrum of supported, third-party applications.
With this in mind, a further goal is to move toward systems that offer binary compatibility with desktop machines to facilitate development and analysis phases of a research effort to be performed at the user's local site. This strategy also ensures that the maximum number of third party codes will be available.