Timeline for How to have these technologies with only mid-1980s-level computers?
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| Feb 6, 2022 at 19:02 | comment | added | Otkin | The OP talks about mid-1980s technology, so clusters seem to be possible based on your links. I also wonder if the software would stay at the same level as in our world if it were impossible to upgrade hardware for some reason. I understand that the overall computing power would be still low. I just think that L.Dutch makes a good point that a lot of things requiring a lot of computing were done even before the 1980s. Perhaps some things could be still done, albeit at a much slower pace and requiring the efforts of many more people. It seems the OP doesn't have some specific timeline in mind. | |
| Feb 6, 2022 at 18:53 | comment | added | Starfish Prime | @Otkin and although I won't go into detail here, even for tasks which can be readily parallelized, running a cluster effectively requires an awful lot of administrative overhead and complex scheduling software and networking hardware. Compute clusters weren't really even a thing until the early-mid 80s for these reasons. | |
| Feb 6, 2022 at 18:49 | comment | added | Starfish Prime | @Otkin that's certainly been a thing in the past, but even the PS3 clusters are 2006 technology. Using Moore's "law" as a rough rule of thumb, a single mid-noughties computer might be 256 to 8192 times more powerful than its equivalent in the 80s, eg. as powerful as a whole cluster of its ancestors. Exponential growth in performance is a pretty staggering thing. | |
| Feb 6, 2022 at 18:33 | comment | added | Otkin | I do not know much about computing apart from the basics. I just remembered that I read somewhere about clusters made of old game consoles, which are less powerful than PCs. So, I was wondering if something similar could be done with the 1980s technology. I defer to your expertise here. | |
| Feb 6, 2022 at 8:57 | comment | added | Starfish Prime | @Otkin Amdahl's Law tends to bite hard with clusters. Also, you have to think about how much more vastly powerful modern computers really are... the amount of compute power in your household right now might actually exceed the world's compute power going into the 80s. | |
| Feb 5, 2022 at 19:57 | comment | added | Otkin | Can't at least some problems with the computing power be resolved by clusters? | |
| Feb 5, 2022 at 19:47 | history | edited | Starfish Prime | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Feb 5, 2022 at 19:07 | history | answered | Starfish Prime | CC BY-SA 4.0 |