IP: Japanese Computer Is World's Fastest, as U.S. "Falls Back" Dave Farber response: "I would argue that maybe we are not so wrong. The idea of assembling a large number of smaller computers connected via a network (an idea which dates at least back to 1970 with the DCS project at UC Irvine (I was PI) may in the long run be a much more powerful way to get large scale computing. The advent of all photonic networks and the increasing power of micro-computers may make such dinosaurs out of conventional superccomputers."