[OT] multicore/cpu history Re: Are the critiques in "All the things I hate about Python" valid?

[Adriaan Renting]

Adriaan Renting        | Email: renting at astron.nl
Software Engineer Radio Observatory
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>>> On 17-2-2018 at 22:02, in message
<CAPTjJmpK5iACzM+f_SJauHSq0OAQkDpcJs-Zt6-acPy3KKLzYA at mail.gmail.com>,
Chris
Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote: 
> On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 5:05 AM, Steven D'Aprano
> <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
>> On Sat, 17 Feb 2018 15:25:15 +1100, Chris Angelico wrote:
>>

...

>>> Totally not true. The GIL does not stop other threads from
running.
>>> Also, Python has existed for multiple CPU systems pretty much since
its
>>> inception, I believe. (Summoning the D'Aprano for history lesson?)
>>
>> If you're talking about common desktop computers, I think you're
>> forgetting how recent multicore machines actually are. I'm having
>> difficulty finding when multicore machines first hit the market, but
it
>> seems to have been well into the 21st century -- perhaps as late as
2006
>> with the AMD Athelon 64 X2:
> 
> No, I'm talking about big iron. Has Python been running on multi-CPU
> supercomputers earlier than that?
> 
>> By the way, multiple CPU machines are different from CPUs with
multiple
>> cores:
>>
>> http://smallbusiness.chron.com/multiple-cpu-vs-multicore-33195.html
> 
> Yeah, it was always "multiple CPUs", not "multiple cores" when I was
> growing up. And it was only ever in reference to the expensive
> hardware that I could never even dream of working with. I was always
> on the single-CPU home-grade systems.
> 

Multicore became a thing with the Pentium 4 hyperthreading around ~2002
for consumers, and
multi cpu was a thing much longer, even with "consumer grade"
hardware:

I remember running 2 Mendocino 300 MHz Celerons on a Pentium II Xeon
motherboard to get a
multi-cpu machine for running multiple virtual machines for testing
purposes around 1998.
This was not as Intel intended, but a quite cheap consumer grade
hardware solution.

...
> 
> ChrisA