----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Thompson" cet1@cus.cam.ac.uk To: "sg" sly789@yahoo.com Cc: emcnas@mathworks.com; toasters@mathworks.com Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2001 2:46 PM Subject: Re: NAS Wars
Now if he had made some serious points about NetApp's implementation being dependent on cost-effective fast uniprocessors, and what the future prospects for such beasts might imply (as compared to systems that can make better use of multiprocessors), rather than wittering on about irrelevancies like the above, maybe the article would have been worth reading.
I agree. And that's a great point, Chris. I don't doubt the ability of Netapp to do multiprocessor, and for all I know they have already done the code. But their approach, so far, has always been to rely on the scaling of single processors, both in performance and in price, to keep turning their product line. Will there come a time when that will no longer be possible amd multiprocessor offerrings become necessary? Sure, but I thought that a few years ago, and it still hasn't happened.
The "dual everything" IP4700 design is nice, though... and with two processors you can still continue to function if the other one fails.
Bruce