They used TPC-H because it's a relevant benchmark everyone in DSS is familiar with. It allows for a reference point. "Name dropping"? Please...

You're kidding right? How many such research papers have you read in your life? Is this the first? If they'd have chosen to use AMD hardware instead of nVidia, you'd see AMD engineers at the top of the page. If one embarks on research to enhance the fuel economy of Ford's EcoTech engine, is one going to go it alone or involve Ford engineers who know everything about said engine? This is known as an "academic/industrial partnership". The bulk of all such research today is done in this manner. If you want to read a study without such commercial involvement, read pure research papers on something like particle physics.

I think everyone who has read this exchange knows who is confused and/or naive, and who has an axe to grind for some illogical reason. Take any 4th year or post grad marketing class and tell me where on the ROI list partnering on academic research papers falls. It's not there. Why? Marketing is an overt exercise designed for maximum exposure. A few employees' names on an academic research paper that will be seen by a few hundred people is the ultimate in obscurity.

If you want to poo-poo something at least have a few facts to back up your arguments. You've stated none in this exchange. I think you should exit this thread at this point. You simply dig yourself a deeper hole with every reply. However it is clear that you are the type who cannot be humbled no matter how many times you're proven wrong. So, please, continue making illogical arguments. Some may find it humorous.

No, the point of the TPC benchmarks is to sell hardware and software. Period. Always has been, always will be. Look at the results. Every system configuration is exact down to the last wire and transistor, all necessary software SKUs, licenses, etc. One can order an identical system directly from the PDF as every part# is there. The TPC organization is funded by fees paid for the test suite, verification of and publication of vendor results. The big vendors spend tens of millions on confgiuration engineering and testing trying to stay at the top of each list.

You seem to be confused here. The researchers did not publish a TPC-H result. They published a method for running SQL queries on a GPU. The TPC-H benchmark was simply the workload they chose to demonstrate that it not only works, but works pretty well. This is research, not a product launch. They didn't submit their results to TPC. They're not selling a computer system or software. Whether their test rig has the size or throughput of a system configuration published on the TCP website is simply not relevant.

They proved the concept. Others will pick up the torch just as happened with GPUs in the HPC space. In the not too distant future we'll see commercial DSS systems, from the same vendors on the current lists, with a GPU (or 2 or 4) in each cluster node.

"H" has no definition. The TPC benchmark series started well over a decade ago. "A", and each subsequent benchmark created over the years, was labeled more or less sequentially, with few exceptions. TCP-W is a "web" benchmark. The two most widely used, TPC-C and TPC-H are, respectively, emulating "transaction processing" and "decision support" workloads. The "C" and "H" have no meaning to anyone outside those who created the benchmarks. Best guess for the origin of "H" is that "decision support" is also called "data warehousing". So maybe the "H" stands for "house". Again, there is no official description of what the letters represent.

With that correction out of the way, I'll point out that nVidia currently offers the Tesla K40 GPU accelerator which has 12GB of RAM. Decision support database systems have been mostly cluster architectures for many years now because they cost less than big monolithic servers and yield superior performance on DSS workloads, at least for problem sets of any size. An 8 node cluster with 12GB Teslas provides 96GB of RAM. If/when APIs are available to allow parallel DSS databses to use the GPUs, such clusters would run circles around traditional CPU based clusters for many DSS workloads whose datasets are not significantly larger than the memory size. And even then it is possible to make more system memory accessible to the GPU.

These guys have shown significant speedups for DSS workloads. It's probably only a matter of time now before we see database engines supporting GPUs. Prior to this I think most people saw GPUs as floating point only accelerators for HPC. This paper, and those preceding it, demonstrate integer workloads can benefit as well.

Nobody would pay $5 per patch. That would be hundreds per year and Microsoft would abuse it with extraneous patches that don't address vulnerabilities. Users would have no way to verify if they needed a given patch, so they'd pay through the nose.

I think the $20/year would be reasonable, but if they did it I'd bet they'd ask for more, probably $35-50/yr, to incentivize folks to upgrade. It would be a cash cow for Microsoft given the number of XP machines still kick'n. If MS did this, and only 20M of the tens of millions of XP users signed up, that's an extra $400M in revenue per year. Maybe $400M/year means nothing to the execs at Microsoft which did $75B in revenue last year. The net profit on that $400M would likely be well over $350M. Regardless of his company's size or revenue stream, any other CFO on the planet would sacrifice his offspring for an extra $400M/$350M/year in revenu/profits. And he'd face a firing squad if/when his investors found out he took a pass on it.

The first lie: “Our current infrastructure has served us well for almost a century but it no longer meets the needs of America?s consumers,” AT&T senior executive vice president Jim Cicconi said

Analog phones and analog dial tones perfectly serve everyone needing a voice call with another party, and they always will.

The second and 3rd lies: Cleland, a former White House telecom policy adviser, said that even if people wanted to keep the old system, “they are not making the switches anymore for this. And the engineers they need to keep it alive are retiring.”

The POTS system is fully mature, fully built. And there are fewer customers on POTS. So there is no need for new production switches, only parts to maintain the currently installed units. Which is why the industry stopped producing new units. But they haven't stopped producing parts. This argument is a red herring.

And when anyone says "nobody knows how to do it anymore, they're all retiring" you KNOW the entire argument is bullsh-t. This argument is literally the equivalent of saying "it's impossible to train new people to do this job". Ahem, if the job pays well, people will gladly learn to do it.

Make no mistake my fellow slashdot readers, the push by the telcos to switch the last mile of analog copper to digital has nothing to do with any of these 3 lies. It is all about profit motive. They have all been losing money as many customers have switched entirely to cell phones for voice, and cable TV for internet service. The city centric telcos want digital to the home phone so they can charge more for additional mandatory bundled services, generate more revenue by displaying ads on the new phones with big multi-line displays that people will be forced to buy, etc, etc. Want proof from the article itself?

'though the transition should not be harmed by “burdensome economic regulations,” such as mandates or price caps.'

This says the ILECs (Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers) should be allowed to charge whatever they want for the new digital phone service. Every person but one they interviewed for that article is a paid shill for the ILECs.

"Anna-Maria Kovacs, a visiting scholar at Georgetown?s Center for Business and Public Policy, stressed that phone companies “must be allowed to repurpose the capital that is currently deployed to support their obsolete circuit-switched networks” during the switch to guarantee a competitive edge."

Since when does a public policy scholar shill the position of a corporate entity? "MUST be allowed... to guarantee a competitive edge."? When she and her study are funded by these corporate interests, not by the taxpayers.

Switching the last mile of copper from analog to digital is a big loser for the consumer from both a reliability of infrastructure and monthly cost perspective. Digital only phone service over copper will be inherently less reliable and will cost significantly more than POTS. Switching to digital won't save the telcos any money. They're banking on charging customers more for it, for extra mandatory services nobody wants or needs.

Judges don't force the NSA to do anything. Kiddie porn puts a judge in the slammer as quickly as anyone else. The "That's not mine, I didn't download that! And those logs must have been fabricated! I'm being setup!" doesn't work any better for judges than anyone else, when it comes to kiddie porn.

SandForce was purchased by LSI quite some time ago. LSI wanted directional control of the silicon to make sure future enhancements fit their needs. That and the fact LSI has always been a storage centric IP/ASIC company, making such an acquisition a perfect fit with their core business. The SF22xx controllers are used in all of LSI's enterprise PCIe SSDs, including the $35K, 3.2TB, model BFH8-3200:

http://www.lsi.com/products/flash-accelerators/pages/nytro-warpdrive-bfh8-3200.aspx#tab/tab0
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/LSI-Nytro-WarpDrive-BFH8-3200-solid-state-drive-3.2-TB-PCI-Express-3/3072358.aspx

If the SandForce controller is good enough for a $35K enterprise device it's more than good enough for your needs. Your shunning of the SF controllers, simply due to low OCZ product quality, is unwarranted. They're one of the two best (Samsung being the other) SSD flash controllers on the planet, hands down. OCZ's problems weren't due to the SF controllers.

To not spy is immoral. Spying on enemies prevented WWIII. Spying prevented the Cold War from going hot and killing billions of people. Spying on friends in the current era keeps them honest, so to speak.

I'm truly surprised govt hasn't figured this out yet. Hire Hooters girls and Chippendales guys for pat down duty and there'd be no more complaints. "But what about the gay complaint?" you ask? That's easy. Have the booth agent watch passengers' eyes. They'll invariably be undressing Ms tits or Mr buff. Then pair up the appropriate groper. "What about children?" you ask? That's easy too. Match the groper to the parent/guardian. If little Susie cries, Dad won't file a complaint because his eyes are glued to Ms Tits' tits. If little Jimmy cries, Mom won't complain because she's fantasizing about Mr Buff's package, etc, etc. And with such agents strip searches become unnecessary, because everyone but the guilty would gladly volunteer to be stripped down, most eager to have his/her cavities gently violated by such a groper.

Govt always fails because they let political correctness and other moronic concerns get in the way of practical solutions.

This is factually incorrect. A *smart* guy would have played this like "deep throat" and remained in the shadows for 40 years, completely anonymous. A smart guy would not have sought the lime light. A smart guy would not have been forced to flee his home and live under the thumb of the quasi dictator of a hostile foreign country, whose language he doesn't speak, whose culture he doesn't understand. A smart guy would not have sacrificed having control over his own life and future. Snowden is definitely not a smart guy.

Snowden was motivated by the attention lavished upon Julian Assange. Snowden was motivated by the "James Bond" factor. Snowden was motivated by his chance at 15 minutes of fame. Snowden was NOT motivated by a sense of patriotic duty to reveal truths about questionable NSA espionage tactics. This was simply a convenient means to an end. Snowden sought notoriety, and saw this as his only chance in life at achieving it. The opportunity presented itself, so he took it. Period. Snowden is not a hero. Snowden is an opportunist.

10 million words wasted on a non-story out of Omaha, which BTW is 70 miles from my keyboard.

The purpose of this bill is helping to figure out how to grow corn, and thus sustain the state's economy, in the face of "cyclical" weather events such as this year's drought. It has nothing to do with the left vs right "global warming" nonsense. People are motivated first and foremost by their wallets. Nebraska's wallet is filled by corn sales. The liberals (very few Democrats) in the Unicameral wanted a study about "humans ruining the climate". The conservatives, all the Rebublicans and most of the Democrats, simply want to keep the corn industry healthy. Which is why the word "cyclical" was added, to keep the study on point. This story didn't come out of California folks, where the liberals want to shut down all power plants but still demand their lights stay on. This is Nebraska, filled with conservative farmers. Most Democrats in Nebraska are conservatives, not liberals. This is one of the "fly over" states filled with "bumpkins", remember?

They don't give a rip about climate change. They just want to keep the corn growing. Again, a non-story ginned up by the "man is destroying the earth" religion of the far left environmentalist whackos.

You are either very young, a liberal, a female, have lived a very sheltered life, or of all of the above. Criminal sentencing has always had one goal, and only one goal: punishment, period. There is never "justice" for victims or their survivors. The "justice system", or "law", has never protected the innocent, removed economic incentive, nor rehabilitated violent offenders, or we'd have eliminated criminal acts already, there would be no police forces, etc. The only solution with violent offenders is to sentenece them to death. And the fallacy of the death penalty argument is this:

A death sentence and a life sentence are both a death sentence, with only one difference: latency to outcome.

Make no mistake. Opponents of the death penalty have no compassion for those who deserve it. This isn't about compassion or the punishment fitting the crime, or the innocent being mistakenly executed. It's about guilt. They are members of society. Society is the executioner, in their minds. They simply go bonkers knowing that they "had a hand" in the execution, have blood on their hands. Fighting the death penalty is about avoiding liberal guilt. Period. If not, they'd fight life sentences as well, because they are, after all, death sentences. The difference is that spineless liberals don't "feel" guilt when a murderer dies of "natural causes" at age 70/80/90 something, alone in a prison cell. There are no cameras around, no protests. No "attention". Thus, no feelings of guilt.

I'm going to pay you a visit, bind you, your mother, sister, girlfriend, wife, daughter(s), etc. I'm going to bind your head and tape your eyelids open so you see everything. Hear everything. Then I'm going to rape them one by one with a piece of 1" dia x 1' steel rebar in the vagina and anus. Then, while still concious, I will cut off her nipples and then disembowel her with a rusty dull box cutter. Whether she's dead now or still conscious, I'll then slowly saw her head off with a hack saw and place it on a pike in front of you, her dead eyes starinng into yours, her blood dripping on your feet. This, while you and the remaining women are forced to witness the terror in her eyes and her screams before her lights go out. You, struggle helplessly, but are unable to stop it, unable to save them. You are forced to watch me torture, mutilate, and behead all of the women you love. I call the police, and stick a post-it to your forehead with my name, address, etc, and walk out the door, forcing you to survery and relive the carnege before authorities arrive.

Going into my trial, you plead with the prosecutor to spare my life, because the death penalty is wrong, that it's only about a sadistic desire for vengeance...

Like "civilized" Europe you mean? Like Norway? Anders Behring indiscriminantly kills 77 and injures 319-- gets 21 years. Is this a "civilized" sentence?

Violent video games have made me want to go on a rampage and kill dozens of unarmed civilians indiscriminantly with an assault rifle. I think I'll immigrate to Norway, light up a youth retreat, then retire to 3 hots and a cot for two decades, thanks to Norway's "civility". I'll be out in time to move back to the States and collect my Social Secuity and Medicare benefits. Actually, being an entrepreneurial American, I'd setup "Norwegian Safari, LLC" and sell travel and in-country weapon acquisition arrangements to other Americans who'd like to take advantage of the "mass murder loophole" that exists in Europe. We dare not do it here because we'd get executed like Tim McVeigh, or more likely, killed in the act like Charles Whitman. But hay, it's open season in Europe.

On the contrary. Science is bringing us ever closer to seeing 'God' in full glory. At some point we will have a single equation, or series of equiations, which describe and predict the process of every phenomenon in the universe, at the smallest and largest scales. At that point, we will truly have discovered, and understand, what "God" is. This is the one true God, and it does exist. It simply is not the God humankind has invented throughout the centuries to comfort its ignorance and inability to explain phenomenon it does not understand.

The God people have invented is a just and righteous God, a moral God. Nothing could be further from the truth. The one true God not only causes earthquakes and hurricanes on Earth, the Taliban and US jets, that kill human beings by the millions, but the one true God also vaporizes entire solar systems when it causes stars to collapse on themselves then explode into supernovae. The one true God even causes entire galaxies to collide, likely causing the extinction of trillions of life forms.

The one true God is the only real enemy of mankind on Earth. If mankind doesn't realize this, stop fighting amongst itself, and use these warring resources to figure out how to fight and win against the one true God, it is doomed, as God will cause earth to be vaporized in about 4 billion years. Yes, God will kill every living thing on this little blue planet, including all the Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddists, etc, etc. So when people sayd they are killing in God's name, I guess they're simply trying to get a head start on the big job ahead...