A Cray SuperComputer Comes to the University of To Essays

A Cray SuperComputer Comes to the University of Toronto By Andrew Reeves-Hall The Cray X-MP/22 manufactured by Cray Research Incorporated (CRI) of Minneapolis, Minnesota was delivered and installed at the U of Toronto this September. The Cray is a well respected computer - mainly for its extremely fast rate of mathematical floating-pointcalculation. As the university states in its July/August computer magazine "ComputerNews", the Cray's "level of performance should enable researchers with large computational requirements at the university of Toronto and other Ontario universities to compete effectively against the best in the world in their respective fields." The Cray X-MP/22 has two Central Processing Units (CPUs) - the first '2' in the '22'. The Cray operates at a clock rate of 105 MHz (the regular, run-of-the-mill IBMPC has a clock rate of 4.77 MHz). By quick calculations, you would be led to believe the Cray is only about 20 times faster that the PC. Obviously, this is not the case. The Cray handles data considerably differently than the PC. The Cray's circuits permit an array of data (known as a 'vector') to be processes as a SINGLE entity. So, where the IBMPC may require several clock cycles to multiply two numbers, the Cray performs everything in one clock cycle. This power is measured in Millions of Floating Point Operations Per Second (MFLOPS) - which is to say the rate at which floating-point operations can be performed. The Cray MFLOPS vary as it does many activities, but a rate of up to 210 MFLOPS (per CPU) can be achieved. The second '2' in the X-MP/22 title refers to the two million 64-bit words (16Mb) of shared central memory. This can be expanded to four million words in the future if the need arises. But it doesn't stop there! The Cray can pipe information back and forth between the CPU memory and the Input/Output Subsystem (IOS). The IOS then takes it upon itself the store the information in any of the four storage devices: i) one of the four 1200 Mb disk drives (at a rate of 5.9Mb every second), ii) one of two standard 200ips 6250bpi tape drives, iii) a Solid State Storage Device (SSD) (which is much like a 128Mb RAM Disk!), or iv) through to a front-end computer (the U of T uses both the IBM4381 and a DEC VAX). These computers would be programmed (usually in FORTRAN) and the information passed onto the Cray. The results would then be transfered back to the front end computers. The 4 year old Cray was bought used from the California NASA research centre where it was used in aerodynamic calculations. This means less cost to buy it and the assurance that it has been 'burned in'. In case you wanted one for yourself, the U of T was able to purchase the Cray for the low-low price of $12 million. Over the next five years, the University predicts the total cost will probably be $25 million when maintenance, staff and other costs are taken into consideration. To help out, the Ontario Government put in $10 million. By doing this, all other Ontario University researchers are assured of access at a reduced cost. By the way, to buy time on the system, it'll cost you $2000 per hour. But Ontario researchers only have to pay 7% of that - $140 per hour. Their first commercial customer is OMNIBUS Graphics of Toronto who plan to use the Cray in the graphic videos. If you saw the movie 'The Last Starfighter', you will have already experienced the graphic capabilites of the Cray (remember the some of the space scenes!). The Cray did all of the calculations required for those scenes and let another graphics computer to do the menial task of drawing the lines and filling with the calculated colour. There is so much to talk about when the word 'Cray' pops to mind! If you are seriously interested in this amazing computer and/or you are interested in purchasing time on the system, please contact the people below: The Centre for Large Scale Computation at the U of T Llyod Parker, Director 978-8255 Facilities Manager Dr. Edmund West 978-4085 Supercomputer User's Group (for University Researchers, etc)

The role of social media in building lasting valuable customer Essay

The role of social media in building lasting valuable customer relationships - Essay Example 1). Interactive market entails appreciating the experiences customers through communication channels whereby customers have a significant experience with the internet in the form of flow (Shankar and Malthouse, 2009, p. 1). Through following their preferred brands and retailers on social media platforms, consumers can get access to an insider view of commodities and the companies that produce them while at the same time looking at new releases, promotions and giveaways among other things. The present retail environment is in a new social norm with more and more people utilizing social networks every day. According to the Digital Consumer Report almost sixty-four percent of people who use social media tap into sites at least once every day on their computers, while almost fifty percent of social media subscribers access social networks through their smartphones. Progressive business entities such as Apple, Dell, Starbucks as well as Nike among other have adopted social channels such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as a means of boosting their bottom-line results (Safko, 2012, p. 27). Numerous brands have started realizing that social media can be employed as a powerful instrument in driving in-store engagement as well as sales. For most of the consumers, social media can be the source of inspiration on various ways of decorating space, planning an outfit or seeing how it fits on a real person rather than the conventional model. However, the participation of retailers in social channels is not supposed to end the moment when the customer pays for the commodity he or she is buying (Sparrow, 2010, p. 33). In order to drive continuous sales while promoting prolonged loyalty, forward thinking businesses employ social media networks to foster ongoing relationships and give value to their customers through time. Even though social media can assist in promoting quick sales and short-term goals of spreading the

History of Iraq - Terms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History of Iraq - Terms - Essay Example Basra and Baghdad were formally integrated as founding units of one structure in the early part of 20th century in the post First World War scenario. The country is a Shiite majority region with minor traces of Sunni communities existing in traces and the differences in faith have often led to conflicts and political tilt in policies throughout its history of existence. The Assyrians constitute for the minority non Muslim population residing in Iraq mostly around the parts of Mosul. The Abbasids had established their rule around Baghdad and parts of Arabian gulf towards the 8th century A.D. Traces of non Muslims in Iraq include the Jews in the form of Semites. Sargon of Akkad was another famous ruler and king who ruled over the region and had his affiliations with the Semites and Jews community. Hence Iraq had a diverse form of ruling over it than spanned in the early days of the 10th to 11th century A.D. Ummayads were another set of individuals and dynasty that ruled in that area and phase and enabled good rule following and law and order establishment. They even sent their representatives to the other parts of the region. The history of Baghdad and Iraq stretches to the days of 12th century A.D when the Mongols invaded the region and captured parts of the modern day Iraq along with the Middle East region countries. The historians that came along with the period of time also included the likes of sociologists and experts on history included intellectuals such as Ibn- Khaldoon. The fact that he brought about a code of ruling and political system was unique at that time, he further enabled keeping a strong hold on the Babylonian Empire at that time. In the context of Babylonian Empire and the Iraq history, the traces can be stretched to as far as Nebuchadrezzar who was instrumental in the context of developing areas and bridges that were not commonly known and seen in those days. Leading further to the B.C era Marduk was considered as one of