AILING computer Goliath IBM made its long-awaited entry into the parallel-processing computing market last week with the worldwide launch of a powerful new general-purpose supercomputer-class machine.
The new system, called the PowerParallel 9076 SP1 is based on the same RISC (reduced-instruction-set computing) processors found at the high end of its RS/6000 range of workstations and servers.
The company also unveiled new products in the RS/6000 series, including a new colour entry-level system and new high-end, high-capacity Network File System (NFS) server.
The SP1 initially ties together eight to 64 processors in a single unit, although IBM is already promising it will eventually be capable of supporting thousands of processors in what is known as a ''massively parallel'' architecture.
Due largely to a lack of commercial application software, the new system aims initially at the engineering and scientific markets.
Early customers have been found in universities, pharmaceutical companies and in weather forecasting.