Benchmarked iPad 2 Outdoes 80's Supercomputer
The amount of innovation and technology developments in the last 20 years is astounding. The jump from "PCs" to true personal computers, laptops, powerful mobile phones, and the technology advancements within each category are just a few examples. These major developments are still recurring today and were shaped through tons of research and inventive work that started in the early 1980's.
An article recently posted in the Bits (Business * Innovation * Technology * Society) blog on the New York Times website brings many of us back to the days of 80s super computers. However, the article does not discuss what the supercomputers of 80's were like - but how a recently benchmarked iPad 2 blows the computing capabilities of these "super" computers out of the water.
Dr. Jack Dongarra, a computer scientist at the Unversity of Tennessee and the Oak Ridge National Labratory, is one of the computer scientists responsible for tracking the world's 500 fastest computers. As a result, he is an operator of the Linpack computing benchmark which tests the mathematical capabilities of computers using a linear algebra test. When he and his team tested the computing capabilities of the iPad 2, it was discovered this small pad-sized device would make a major rival of the Cray 2 supercomputer. The Cray 2 in its day was the fastest computer in the world (1985) and contained eight processors.
The team also concluded the iPad 2's processing speed is almost 10 times faster than it's predecessor, the iPad. The design of the new processor is most likely the cause for this incredible change.
Dongarra's team only tested one of the iPad 2's microprocessors. And even from those results, the figures make it a good competitor to the Cray 2 supercomputer. When they have finished conducting research on both microprocessors together, they are speculating the amount of computing power would have allowed the iPad 2 to be the fastest computer in the world all the way until 1994.
Source(s): Bits - New York Times