[uniqueuid]

Sure, but consumer hardware does not have infiniband or other high-bandwidth interconnects. That means you can have at most ~1-2TB of ram accessible at any point. Some problems need coordination, and when you're back at OpenMP etc., a supercomputer suddenly makes sense.

[mihaic]

I agree right now, I'm thinking maybe in 15 years you can have >1PB on a single machine, and then those problems that don't fit in that space but that fit in a supercomputer become fewer. 2050 will be within out lifetime.

Basically I'm estimating the benefit ratio to be (log SupercomputerSize - log ConsumerSize)/log ConsumerSize, and that keeps decreasing.

[uniqueuid]

You're not wrong.

The set of problems that fit into a single node is growing. At least in some fields where the added benefit of more data is less important than, say, more precise measurements.