The Use of Supercomputers and Microcomputers in Computational Chemistry — Job Turnaround Time as a Criterion for the Choice of System
Stephen J. Zara, David Graham Nicholson, James P. Barber · Molecular Simulation · 1988
The performance of a supercomputer installation (Cray-IS with Amdahl front-end) is compared with a ‘desk-top’ computer (IBM PC-AT with 80287 Numeric Data Processor) using both execution time and total job turnaround time for a set of benchmark programs which includes a Monte Carlo simulation. The effect of compiler efficiency and optimisation for system-specific hardware on execution time are discusssed. We propose the use of ‘turn-around time’ as a criterion for computer system performance, and show that judged by this criterion, ‘desk-top’ computing can provide a significant fraction of the power of a networked supercomputer installation.