I guess that I should preface this with another question. Does anybody use a z for heavy numeric computation anymore? Or has that all gone to Intel and Power boxes? Why is that? If it is because the z architecture is "not good" at numeric computation, I have a question. The internals of the z has used the PCIe bus for some time. Wouldn't that imply that it would be at least theoretically possible to plug in any PCIe card? OK, I understand that there would need to be some way to access it. But, in conjunction with the previous question about computational ability, couldn't this be used for "GPU computation". It seems to be that the "really heavy" computation is being moved from the CPU (Intel) onto the GPU (AMD or Nvidia graphics processor). Would it make any monetary sense to enable GPU computation on a z? Long ago, there were "vector" instructions. Why not some sort of interface instruction(s) which allow loading a GPU processing program to be placed in a GPU on a PCIe card and then have some way to suspend the unit of work until the GPU computation is complete? Likewise have an API to request access to a GPU which would suspend the unit of work until a GPU was available and assign the GPU to the unit of work?
Weird thoughts from a weird person. -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * john.mck...@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
