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A Private Home For Retired Supercomputers

Posted by timothy on from the they-rest-for-a-bit dept.

Steve writes "Every geek has wanted to play with a Cray supercomputer. Hexus.net had the rare opportunity to meet up with a man who has something of a fetish for collecting them! They got a look at some of the amazing kit Armari - a systems integration company - have in their possession. Ever wanted to see inside a Cray T3D MPP, or maybe the gargantuan machine that is the T90? Now is your chance!"

164 comments

  1. Cray (fish) by weizur · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now if I could only get my CRAY-fish collection to have the same credit...

    1. Re:Cray (fish) by Blitzenn · · Score: 0

      Well, your collection is probably worth more anyway.

  2. YMP... by Jaruzel · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I had the luxury of playing with a Cray YMP at the MoD (in the UK)... Just a big number cruncher with a VAX/VMS front end. Lovely to look at though.

    --
    Together, We Can Make Slashdot Better. I Do NOT Mod ACs. - Check Me Out
    1. Re:YMP... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      VAX/VMS frontend? How so? I've also used a Cray YMP and it ran Unicos, not VMS. Two different operating system for two different enviroments.

    2. Re:YMP... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And therein lies the problem. Most super-computers were purpose-built and are thus not too useful for general purpose programs. Some optimizations that have been done to these machines means that a 486 might even be faster on certain code!

      It's a lot like comparing a luxury yacht to an aircraft carrier. Sure, the carrier is pretty damn cool, has lots of capacity, and lots of features. Unfortunately, the carrier is probably not going to move an inch without a full crew and military grade servicing. All of those great things you thought you would get from buying an old carrier, you find would have been better served with a new yacht.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    3. Re:YMP... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      Lovely to look at is pretty much it.

      The operational cost of keeping them powered is often pretty high, and if you get too old of a unit, then they are easily outpowered by a desktop computer. Then you have the special purpose vs. general purpose machine, as vector machines don't do so well in many mundane tasks.

    4. Re:YMP... by Jaruzel · · Score: 1

      Direct data pump somehow, I wasn't the Cray guy, I was just a mere Vax Operator at the time.

      Users loaded data into a VMS process which piped it to the Cray, the Cray ate it, and piped the answer back.

      (Hey I was 18!)

      --
      Together, We Can Make Slashdot Better. I Do NOT Mod ACs. - Check Me Out
    5. Re:YMP... by kjs3 · · Score: 1
      He said the front ends ran VMS, not the Cray. Users edited programs and did other interactive stuff on the front end that then got submitted to the Cray.

      BTW...real men ran COS on their Cray, not fruity Unicos.

      The Y/MP-48 that I used at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center was tricked out the same way.

    6. Re:YMP... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 2, Funny

      Oh, I'm sorry. Allow me to fix that:

      1inuk5 ROXORS!!!
      M$$$$$F7 SUXORS!!!
      Dude, I'm so 31337!!!
      Can you imaging a beowulf cluster of these?
      I for one, welcome our new Super-Computer overlords.
      ???, Profit!!!
      7H47'5 7H3 5P0K3!
      Hot grits
      Natalie Portman

      See? Content. I'll bet I'll get modded down for it though. Slashdotters NEVER appreciate any real content.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    7. Re:YMP... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please give an example of any piece of code that runs faster on a 486 than any machine ever classified as a supercomputer. No? Didn't think so.

      In your example, which one is the 486? The luxury yacht? The aircraft carrier? I'm confused.

    8. Re:YMP... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 2, Informative

      Please give an example of any piece of code that runs faster on a 486 than any machine ever classified as a supercomputer. No? Didn't think so.

      Most forms of user-interactive programs or branch-heavy logic. You see, many supercomputers used EXTREMELY long memory pipelines that placed the processor 100+ clocks behind the memory being fetched. A single branching instruction usually resulted in a task switch to the next queued process, thus keeping processor usage high.

      The end result is that these machines could crunch streaming data at an extraordinary rate, but couldn't compete directly with scalar processors for branching performance. I believe that's the reason that VAX front-ends were used on Crays. Running a user interface on the Cray would have caused a great deal of interruption in the processor's duties, and thus would have substantially decreased performance.

      Wikipedia (yes, I love to piss off you anti-WP people) has an explanation of vector processors. Take careful note of the section on pipelining, as that is the key to both the supercomputer performance, as well as the lack thereof.

      I'm confused.

      Yes, we know. Otherwise you wouldn't post as an AC.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    9. Re:YMP... by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, the carrier is probably not going to move an inch without a full crew and military grade servicing.

      You make military grade service sound like a good thing. Silly civilians...

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  3. Now is pretty short... by apanap · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now is your chance

    Yeah, cause in 10 minutes it'll be slashdotted...

    --
    Give me a job. Please?
    1. Re:Now is pretty short... by unts · · Score: 0

      Hexus... slashdotted? Naaah.

    2. Re:Now is pretty short... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, half of the images doesn't load when I try looking at them... It could just be that they're not there, but I think a slashdotting is a more probable explanation.

    3. Re:Now is pretty short... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tomorrow's your chance.

    4. Re:Now is pretty short... by unts · · Score: 1

      Fair point

    5. Re:Now is pretty short... by davesplace1 · · Score: 0

      You have to move fast around here. I get to play with my Compaq, ok it's not as cool as a supercomputer.

      --
      roamingfeet
    6. Re:Now is pretty short... by demachina · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A better question is why geeks would have a fetish for Crays at all these days, other than those with a historical bent. Believe it or not its not like you are going to have some transcendent experience logging in to one, unless you really get off on Fortran and vectorizing code. Obviously they have some fine massively parallel machines but so do a lot of other companies. If you have an app that you want to run that fits on a Cray then maybe its still interesting to you but thats not most people.

      OS wise they do have some good software for niches, but in general Linux is better and more broadly developed, and of course some of Cray's machines are running Linux too. CrayOS has never had the critical mass of developers you need to be polished, though again in certain niches it has some really great efforts.

      Big Iron had its place a decade ago and back. The tyranny of Carer Mead and CMOS processors has led to an age were smaller, cheaper and mass produced trumps big, expensive and custom built for most, though certainly not all, applications.

      For example its why most of us are running Nvidia and ATI GPU's and not SGI big iron graphics anymore. And of course SGI's R8000 among others carved up the low to middle end of Cray's market and ended their last incarnation as an independent company.

      --
      @de_machina
    7. Re:Now is pretty short... by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Good point. Here's how to get the experience, or something close to it. First, get a Pentium III machine, maybe 800Mhz processor. Fill it up with at least a gig of memory, and a terabyte of disk space, implemented as a large array of IOMega Bernoulli drives, 40 megabytes each. Install Linux on it. No, not Redhat, I mean Slackware. Do not install the X server. Install your Fortran compiler. Oh, and I forgot to mention, you will interact with this machine through a VAX front end. You won't log into the machine directly, but will work on the VAX and submit jobs from the VAX to the simulated supercomputer. When the job is done, the results are sent back to the VAX front end computer.

      Ta Da! You've got a machine that's very comparable to a Cray I from more than 20 years ago.

      --
      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
    8. Re:Now is pretty short... by Analogy+Man · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I wonder if the electrical infrastrucutre and hvac engineering hardware could be effectively reused with modern processors?

      I recall studying an early (Nazi Germany era) jet engine. It had all kinds of very sophisticate systems (e.g. liquid cooled turbine blades) to get around metalurgical limitations. Some of the features actually went from nearly 50 years before they were implemented again when materials technologies were a limitation and exotic work-arounds were required.

      Yes, history may have passed these CRAY machines by, but the engineering problems once solved may be encountered again and it would be a shame to disregard that research because the "big iron" is "old iron".

      --
      When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
    9. Re:Now is pretty short... by PingPongBoy · · Score: 1

      I would downgrade my Doom3 server but I can achieve the same thing with a few useless processes in the background.

      --
      Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
    10. Re:Now is pretty short... by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      A better question is why geeks would have a fetish for Crays at all these days, other than those with a historical bent.

      It's not about the machine, as much as the man and the philosophy behind the machine.

      Seymour Cray was one of the first true legends of computing. His mixture of sheer architectural intelligence and interesting personality quirks made him one of computing's first media stars (for small niche values of media). His architectural philosophy was to do one thing and do it well. For example, the main issue leading to his break with CDC was that they wanted the new generation of Cybers to be multi-purpose, while Seymour wanted to crunch scientific bits really, really fast.

      If you look at the processors he designed, there were almost never any architectural compromises to his goal of making the machine having the most FLOPs. If that meant memory had no parity (His quote: "Parity is for farmers.") so be it. If it meant new cooling technologies, he'd design it. If it meant a design of a new chip, he'd do it. That sort of single-minded devotion to architectural purity is pretty much unknown today, because companies aren't interested in pushing the technological envelope the way Seymour did. And that's why Cray's are legendary - something that an SGI or Intel multi-processor never will be.

      --
      That is all.
    11. Re:Now is pretty short... by demachina · · Score: 2, Informative


      I haven't actually RTFA but the two models listed in the submission aren't actually Seymour's designs. The T90 is Seymour inspired but I don't think he was anywhere near where it was built. I don't think the T3E has anything to with him, and am not sure he would have liked it much since its kind of a commodity CMOS(DEC Alpha) based MPP and nothing like anything Seymour would have designed. Thats one of the problems with Cray's deity status, his name has been tacked on so many companies and computers at this point its diluted his "brand" and that is unfortunately what his name is today, a brand that that doesn't have anything to do with the man anymore.

      "because companies aren't interested in pushing the technological envelope the way Seymour did."

      Maybe its because after the Cray-2 and its derivatives Seymour's approach stopped working. There was only one Cray 3 built, it was at NCAR if I recall, and the Cray 4 was never finished. His need to push the envelope pushed him to GaAs and GaAs was hard to make work and very expensive, the antithesis of the commodity CMOS that won. Maybe he could have made it work if he'd had more money and lived. But the fact is commodity CMOS won for some good reasons.

      Its also worth looking at his efforts at CDC on the 6600, 7600 and 8600, while offering amazing performance for the time, and quite successful, developing them nearly bankrupted CDC. Its a lot easier to "push the envelope" if you have buckets of money, presumably from government subsidies than it is if you are trying to keep a company afloat. Not sure you've ever run a company but its not easy, and Seymour's, spare no expense approach tended to give the people trying to balance the books fits.

      He was a GREAT engineer and he made some major contributions to computer engineering. Not sure I would go so far as to deify him.

      --
      @de_machina
  4. Slashdotted Already?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    He should have hosted it on one of his Crays

    1. Re:Slashdotted Already?? by plupster · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Slashdotted Already??

      Not trying to be an ass here, but why do people always say this. Isn't the site most likley to be slashdotted when the story is new. Or should the server some how manage very heavy load and then get tired? I don't get the logic behind the "Slashdotted Already".

    2. Re:Slashdotted Already?? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Well slashdotting usually occures after 5 minutes after the story is posted. It is an issue of probabilty say when the story pops on withing the first fiew minutes only the subscribers get to read this. The subscriber rairly get the site when it is slashdotted nor do they slashdot it. Then when the story goes public. Say 1000 people see it and only 5% will click on the link the same second they see it. Then after a minute or so after everyone else has read the message then they will choose a good link to click in it. After that minute before you click on that link there are 60 more chances of say 50 people clicking on the link out of habit. So Slashdotting usually is more of a bell shape load event. Sometimes the bell is very steap and other times it is more greadual thus allowing early visitors to see the story earlier.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:Slashdotted Already?? by DarthBart · · Score: 1

      Nah. Apache on Unicos doesn't run all that hot. I got bored one morning and built it and load tested it.

    4. Re:Slashdotted Already?? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      I'll bet it would make an awesome DSP processor, though! Just imagine being able to record to disk, just about every broadcast in the air! ;-)

      Of course, you'd need a little extra hardware to digitize the signals in the first place...

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  5. just think by tazanator · · Score: 2, Interesting

    can you imagine the AC (both power and cooling)demand for a good quake bake? :)

    --
    I'm told you are what you eat, does that mean I can be you by tomorrow with some A1?
  6. yeah, sure by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ever wanted to see inside a Cray T3D MPP, or maybe the gargantuan machine that is the T90? Now is your chance!

    You mean now as in tomorrow when the slashdotting is over.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  7. mirror. by jabella · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here are the images, mirrored:

    t3d_2_big.jpg

    td3_psus_big.jpg

    t3d_wiring_big.jpg

    t90_2_big.jpg

    t90_system_board_big.jpg

    1. Re:mirror. by alta · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think someone is going to have to mirror you!

      --
      Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
    2. Re:mirror. by Saltine+Cracker · · Score: 1

      Too funny, I was thinking the same thing.

    3. Re:mirror. by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Funny
      > Here are the images, mirrored:
      > t3d_2_big.jpg
      > td3_psus_big.jpg
      > t3d_wiring_big.jpg
      > t90_2_big.jpg
      > t90_system_board_big.jpg

      Slashdot.
      Porn for Nerds. JPGs that matter.

  8. Mummies of the digital age by teiresias · · Score: 3, Interesting

    the mummies of the digital age. we're like treasure hunters only instead of jewels and crowns we're looking for gold lined circuit boards.

    --
    -Teiresias
    1. Re:Mummies of the digital age by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Leela: Professor we need to talk to you about Fry.

      Bender: That's right, we want some money! Wait what's this about Fry.

      Leela: He's a nice guy, but we think it's about time he got his own place.

      Professor: Oh Fuff, he's not causing any trouble. Now if you don't mind I'm rather busy, I seem to have mislaid my alien mummy. This sarcophagus should contain the remains of emperor Nimballa who ruled Zooban5 over 29 million years ago.

      Fry: Hey Professor, Mmmm great jerky.

      Professor: My God, this is an outrage. I was going to eat that mummy. Fry has got to GO!

  9. Coral by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Working Link

  10. Ive always wanted... by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... one of those big super computers with all of the blinking lights and huge spool of tape spinning around. I've even known a few companies that were "disposing" of them. Unfortunatly, like most Mac owners, their policy tends to be "Throw it out. Don't let anyone else have it", so to this day, I am supercomputerless

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    1. Re:Ive always wanted... by dfj225 · · Score: 1

      Haha...awesome. I guess I'm not the only one who wishes I could walk into a server room still in use today and see the walls lined with huge mainframes, each with their own spinning tape drive...just like in the movies.

      --
      SIGFAULT
    2. Re:Ive always wanted... by blether · · Score: 1

      To get that proper old-school movie computer vibe, I much prefer comms rooms. Standing amongst the banks of routers, switches and modems with their endlessly blinking lights and festoons of cable, it's easy to imagine yourself in a supervillian's control center.

    3. Re:Ive always wanted... by scribblej · · Score: 1

      It'd be fun to have some of that hardware, but what you're describing isn't a supercomputer. It's just a plain old mainframe.

    4. Re:Ive always wanted... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mac users don't throw out computers. We convert them into Acquaria.

  11. makes me nostaligic by m2bord · · Score: 2, Interesting

    this makes me miss the days of trs80's and writing basic code that you saved to a tape recorder.

    this makes me miss punch cards and the fear you had of getting them out of order.

    it makes me miss...ti calculators where if you held down three of the corner keys, the thing would bypass the on button.

    sigh...i miss the old days.

    --
    Is it 5:30 yet?
    1. Re:makes me nostaligic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lame. peeps might miss the trs/apple days, but i can't understand missing punch cards or ti calculators. if you have already used a trs/apple, why will you miss a ti? it's not like ti calcs came first...

    2. Re:makes me nostaligic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Three corner keys on TI calculators?

      I'm not remembering this from high school. Could you 'splain?

      DJ

    3. Re:makes me nostaligic by tarkie101 · · Score: 0

      The Ti calcs had a wiered 'feature' that if you held down keys in a sequence you could get it to react as if another key had been pushed. The ON switch was the three keys in the corner. Hours of endless fun seeing what wiered display you could get it to show by holding key combinations.

    4. Re:makes me nostaligic by m2bord · · Score: 1

      i spent many an english class (just before trig) in high school messing around with my TI-41

      that old sunday school teacher that i had for an english teacher used to get so mad at me for doing math in her class...but discussing the significance of the shadow of a tree in the third act of some play written in olde english just wasn't that appealing to me.

      --
      Is it 5:30 yet?
  12. Not Running on A Cray by boiscout · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The site must not be running on one of the crays. It's already slashdotted!

    --
    "Shut up about my driving. You're still alive."
    1. Re:Not Running on A Cray by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is up and running - maybe just a glitch? :)

  13. Ah.. memories by Quixote · · Score: 4, Funny
    Reminds me of the first time I saw a Cray T3D at the Los Alamos National labs (about 10 years ago, in 1994). The door had this funky LCD display with some graphics on it. As we were watching the water-cooled behemoth inside, the person incharge there said, "watch this" hit a button on the inside of the door. The LCD display went "bing" and a Mac logo popped up! It was a Mac, being used just for the prettiness.

    (years of beer have killed a few neurons, so memory's a bit fuzzy... :-) )

    1. Re:Ah.. memories by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 3, Interesting

      At my former university, they had a corridor with a glass wall which went past the machine room full of supercomputers, many with flashy-looking blinkenlights arranged into grids or in the form of graphical processor-monitoring screens. There were often some weird and wonderful smaller machines, like some Linux-running, Itanium-powered (according to the labels) SGI workstations - this was late 2000, early 2001 or so, and I haven't seen a single Itanic since...

      The biggest machine was a huge Cray T3E - I don't recall any blinkenlights on it, but it didn't need them! I recently heard that turing.mcc.ac.uk has since been dismantled, presumably because it was no longer cost-effective for its mere few hundred Gflops. I've no idea what was done with it and its parts, or what (if anything) it has been replaced with, but it's what I thought of when I saw this article. :-)

      --
      Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
    2. Re:Ah.. memories by joib · · Score: 1


      The biggest machine was a huge Cray T3E - I don't recall any blinkenlights on it, but it didn't need them! I recently heard that turing.mcc.ac.uk has since been dismantled, presumably because it was no longer cost-effective for its mere few hundred Gflops. I've no idea what was done with it and its parts, or what (if anything) it has been replaced with, but it's what I thought of when I saw this article. :-)

      Yeah I saw a T3E once too, at the local supercomputer center. Quite impressive. When they upgraded to a p690 cluster a couple of years ago they just dismantled it and threw the cards into the bin. Apparently it was quite an expensive system to keep running, using lots of electricity and that funky liquid freon cooling system etc. So despite the 500 peak Gflop/s it produced, nobody wanted it.

    3. Re:Ah.. memories by pmiller396 · · Score: 1

      Yikes! I read this as "they had a supercollider with a glass wall...."

      Wishful thinking, I guess :)

    4. Re:Ah.. memories by PingPongBoy · · Score: 1

      About 16 years ago there was a large computer at my university. It was replaced by a more powerful computer. The large computer was the size of a refrigerator but the new machine consisted of two tower cases you can put on a desk. Suddenly the room looked so empty.

      You can tell the university wasn't the richest because it didn't replace the old machine with one of comparable size.

      A couple years later someone got an 8-processor SGI machine that was the size of the fridge. I looked inside. The processors took a bit of space in the centre. There was some space used for disk, but over 70% of the volume in the case was completely air - not even cables or anything. So what does size really mean?

      --
      Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
    5. Re:Ah.. memories by iabervon · · Score: 1

      I still like the Cray-1 at the National Air and Space Museum, still in active use by visitors to the EE exhibit. Doesn't have much computing power by today's standards, but it has a much more comfortable interface than today's computers, especially after walking around museums all day...

    6. Re:Ah.. memories by rickst29 · · Score: 1

      As a former Cray employee, I can vouch for the relative "comfort" of curling up on the Power Supply bench for a quick nap... the padding was pretty good. Lots of noise in the room, though, and we kept the air air temp really cold.

  14. Nice design on the T3D enclosure by Peter+Simpson · · Score: 1

    I guess when the hardware is megabucks, the cost of innovative ID gets lost in the noise. Cray always had nice looking machines. These are no disappointment.

    Wonder where he got them? Maybe the codebreakers are using Beowulf clusters now...

    1. Re:Nice design on the T3D enclosure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      would you want to pay a million bucks for a computer that looks like the 486 from your basement? Each cray probably requires a lot of customization and thought put into how the machine will be put together - making it aestheticly pleasing on the outside probably doesn't take much more effort really.

  15. Mirror by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mirror dot has mirrored the link here.

    1. Re:Mirror by Saltine+Cracker · · Score: 2, Informative

      Too bad their links don't work for the additional pages...they all point back to Hexus.net.

  16. Re:How bored do you have to be by Usquebaugh · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Steam Locos
    Steam Traction Engines
    Brunnels Suspension Bridge
    Model T Ford
    Stutz Bearcat
    AC Cobra 427
    GT 40
    Jaguar D Type

    All of these could be seen as scrap metal but to some people they become important. It's the same with old computers, what I would give to run a some jobs on a B4955, nostalgia has great value.

    Given the current malaise of the computing industry looking forward and back to better times is a way of get over the crap we currently have to deal with.

  17. yeah but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant


    will it run Longhorn ?

    1. Re:yeah but... by BobWeiner · · Score: 2, Funny

      the real question is: why would you want to?

      --
      The PC Weenies: 11 Years of Online Tech 'Too
    2. Re:yeah but... by carlmenezes · · Score: 1

      errr...coz that's the minimum system spec for Longhorn?

      don't ask me whose longhorn tho hehe :)

      --
      Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
  18. Re:Can't they recycle it? by Blitzenn · · Score: 0

    Here Here! That's just too much common sense for this place!

  19. A 'Me Too' post... by slowhand · · Score: 1

    Same for me at NASA's Mission to Planet Earth - EOSDIS project http://spsosun.gsfc.nasa.gov/eosinfo/Welcome/index .html.

    Amazing how fast a cluster of Cray YMPs can execute "Hello world"!

    --
    Busy aligning my non-linear thoughts.
  20. Price tag by Raedwald · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cray sold a computer to a company I worked for, for the sum of (raises finger to mouth) ONE POUND. Bwahahaha.

    --
    Ne mæg werig mod wyrde wiðstondan, ne se hreo hyge helpe gefremman.
    1. Re:Price tag by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      one pound of what?

    2. Re:Price tag by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One pound of British Sterling. Are you that ignorant?

    3. Re:Price tag by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      One pound of British Sterling. Are you that ignorant?


      Are you:

      Humor impaired?
      Stupid?
      Just an asshole?

      More than likely all three.
    4. Re:Price tag by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh sorry that was my first troll ever, I couldn't help myself. It was awesome!

    5. Re:Price tag by Lord_Breetai · · Score: 1

      Cray sold a computer to a company I worked for, for the sum of (raises finger to mouth) ONE POUND. Bwahahaha.

      And £99'999.999,00 shipping and handling!

      --
      "You are only young once, but you can be immature forever." -www.animemusicvideos.org
    6. Re:Price tag by Analogy+Man · · Score: 1

      Maybe they had stock in the power company waiting for your meter to spin with 87 zigawatts running the cooling system.

      --
      When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
    7. Re:Price tag by fr2asbury · · Score: 1

      What he doesn't say is that it wasn't really Cray that sold it and it was one pound of weapons grade plutonium. ;-)

  21. Computer History Museum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... or, if you're ever near Mountain View, California, why not see them in person (and a whole lot more)?

    Computer History Museum website

    1. Re:Computer History Museum by natron+2.0 · · Score: 1

      As a matter of fact if you ever make it out the the east coast you can see them (Crays) at the National Crypologic Museum outside of NSA/Ft. Meade. The exit is just off the B/W Parkway.

      --
      [n8.r0n] http://petesweb.spymac.net/
  22. Re:Can't they recycle it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Uh, it's "Hear, hear". Perhaps when you're not so busy being at the cutting edge of everything, I could interest you in an old dictionary or two?

  23. Re:Retired? by stratjakt · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Imagine a beowulf cluster of retarded computers?

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  24. Mirror Slashdotted... My Turn To Mirror by autocracy · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://templar.storyinmemo.com/

    --
    SIG: HUP
  25. PDP 11 for free by JCOTTON · · Score: 0
    I was offered a PDP-11 computer for free - just haul it away. I first learned programming on that machine.

    Boat anchor now.

  26. So how fast are they exactly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Can anyone tell me how fast these things are compared with, say, an Athlon 2000+?

    1. Re:So how fast are they exactly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes.

    2. Re:So how fast are they exactly? by owdi · · Score: 3, Informative

      A 2ghz Athlon can pull just over 3 GFlops.

      The T90 had 32 x 450mhz CPUs that could do 4 ops per cycle, which comes out to 1.8GFlops per chip and 57.6Gflops for the whole shebang.

      The real differnce however is not raw cpu horsepower, but memory bandwidth, latency, and scaling. I don't know nearly enough about supercomputers to be able to explain that in detail.

      -Dan

  27. Overheard in the rest home. by AtariAmarok · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's kind of creepy walking down the halls of this place. From one room you hear: "Stop, Dave. I'm afraid.". From another: "The Milliard Gargantubrain? A mere abacus!"

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  28. Yes, but... by saintp · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...does he have a Gibson?

    --
    Another one bites the dust
    1. Re:Yes, but... by natron+2.0 · · Score: 2, Informative

      A Gibson?!? No one could ever hack that!

      --
      [n8.r0n] http://petesweb.spymac.net/
    2. Re:Yes, but... by mekkab · · Score: 1

      This guy does!

      Oh, was that not the Gibson you were reffering to?

      --
      In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
  29. The Vic 20? by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1

    I wonder if they will take that old Vic 20 in the back of the top closet shelf. It was, after all, the wonder computer of the 80s.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:The Vic 20? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ahh those were the days, I had one when I was 4. It was my first computer. I loved those text adventure games, arcade shooters, and learning to code in BASIC. :-)

    2. Re:The Vic 20? by HarveyBirdman · · Score: 1
      I wonder if they will take that old Vic 20 in the back of the top closet shelf. It was, after all, the wonder computer of the 80s.

      Yeah. Those of us with other computers wondered why anyone would buy a Vic 20.

      --
      --- Ban humanity.
    3. Re:The Vic 20? by c00kiemonster · · Score: 1

      ahh the good old days of going to my mates place , hitting the play button , going ouside for a bit of backrayd cricket , coming in 30 mins later , relise the tape had stuffed up , redoing it... memories Anyway who cares if a effectivly configured array of high end desktops is just as effective , who cares desktops dont have lotsa blinking lights alot of geek street cred a requirment for 3 phase power to your house its like looking at a rolls royce from 1920 yep the car is decidly low tech but boy was it engineered well , nice engineering for a mech. eng. is like a nice painting for an arts grad

  30. Put together a decent workstation too... by SparkyUK · · Score: 2, Informative

    Armari can also put you together a decent high-end workstation.

    Back in the day (c. 1999) I needed a new workstation. Armari set me up with Dual PIII-400's, LVD-SCSI HD, lots of RAM. Man that was a dream machine in it's day. Set me back of the (then) equivalent of $5,000 but it cut through my compliations like a knife through butter.

    Still running. Man it's a crap machine now though!

    1. Re:Put together a decent workstation too... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's funny, because there never was a 400MHz Pentium 3...

  31. Mirror of Mirror slowing down already - my turn! by jimicus · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.whitepost.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mirror/t 3d_2_big.jpg
    http://www.whitepost.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mirror/t 3d_psus_big.jpg
    http://www.whitepost.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mirror/t 90_2_big.jpg
    http://www.whitepost.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mirror/t 3d_wiring_big.jpg
    http://www.whitepost.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mirror/t 90_system_board_big.jpg

  32. mirror of the mirror by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.dragva.com/eng/slashmirror/

    Be gentle.

  33. Re:Mirror of Mirror slowing down already - my turn by autocracy · · Score: 1

    I take offense to that. load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 Bandwidth: Approx 1Mbit. About 10% of my capacity.

    --
    SIG: HUP
  34. bah, small fish by telemonster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is a guy's PRIVATE, PERSONAL Cray collection:

    http://www.digibarn.com/friends/jamescurry/index.h tm

    It has to be the most comprehensive collection of Cray systems in the world (including Cray's facility in Chippawa falls?).

    (Please do not post it on the front page of slashdot without digibarns permission). Those pictures are quite a bit outdated, as he no longer lives in that state and has added more systems since then.

    I believe he had over 11 before. He donated a few to someone, I forget who.

    --
    Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
  35. Re:Retired? by Reducer2001 · · Score: 1

    In Soviet Russia, Beowulf cluster imagines you!

    --
    When you get to hell -- tell 'em Itchy sent ya!
  36. The time has come... by cyanobyte · · Score: 0

    The time is now....

    It's been to long by brothers and sisters that the man has worked to keep the silicon brethren among us under his thumb. Lets rise up and demand equal rights for our electric cousins!

    We also need to extend social security and medicare benifits to retired super computers.

  37. Something not so funny... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    We must ban the sale of even "retired" supercomputers to China (which includes Taiwan province and Hong Kong). The Chinese would use the supercomputers for fine tuning their nuclear arsenal and for cloning human beings. The Chinese simply do not have the same notion of morality that we have.

    The Chinese are the main supporters of Iran, now, and have threatened to veto any United Nations resolution that forces Iran to stop developing nuclear weapons. Such is the nature of the Chinese pig.

  38. Re:Can't they recycle it? by Blitzenn · · Score: 0

    What the purpose does a swipe like that serve? Did your wife kick you in the nuts on the way out of the house this morning?

    Secondly, I don't claim to be at the cuting edge of anything. Please refer to a written or a transcribed spoken statement I made, and provide proof of it's legitacy prior to issuing your slander.

    Secondly, I would challenge you to find either statement, "here here" or "hear hear" in an "old" dictionary anyway.

  39. Should I be impressed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I doubt I'm the only one on /. who bought an old cray off ebay?

    1. Re:Should I be impressed? by telemonster · · Score: 1

      Which model?

      I sold two J932se's a while ago, and have a 3rd one for sale in the works. Keeping #4.

      --
      Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
  40. Slashdotted already... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...darnit.

  41. IBM System/360 by ZorinLynx · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder if any computer system collectors have any IBM System/360 machines that are still in operation.

    S/360 is interesting because it was one of the first standardized architectures created by a computer company. Before that, each seperate machine had its own instruction set and architecture, and they were incompatible with each other.

    A mid-sized functional IBM System/360 is quite a sight. Multiple cabinets of core memory, CPU cabinets, tape systems, consoles with thousands of blinkenlights... A real fun system to watch in operation.

    Hopefully someone out there still operates one for fun. It's expensive, but we have rich geeks right? }:)

    -Z

    1. Re:IBM System/360 by Nrlll9 · · Score: 1

      they still sell them its just not called 360 anymore

    2. Re:IBM System/360 by mythedrine · · Score: 1

      The computer desk in my home is the pedestal/electronics cab from an IBM 3215 console/printer that was attached to an IBM 370/145 from 1971. The cabinet still contains the 8 inch diskette drive used for microcode/diagnostics loading. The diskette drive weighs about 40 kg has a 1/4 horsepower motor. What I really want is the calligraphic display CRT from a 370/168 console or therabouts. Looks better than any dot matrix.

  42. Seymour Cray by cloud99 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Seymour Cray never designed the T3D supercomputer. Seymour split from Cray Research Inc (CRI) to found Cray Computer Corp (CCC) in 1989. At CCC he designed the GaAs Cray-3 and stillborn Cray-4. After CCC folded in 1995 he founded SRC Computers which was his first attempt at using commodity CPUs. SRC exists to this day but changed focus after Seymour's death in 1996. Other crayons may have better info but I believe that Steve Chen designed the T3D at CRI. Those of us who knew Seymour still miss him. He was quite simply the smartest man I have ever met.

    1. Re:Seymour Cray by senelson · · Score: 1

      Steve Chen left Cray Research in 1987 to start Supercomputer Systems Inc. which was funded by IBM. Actually the Cray T3D team was led by yours truly -- a different Steve (yes, I'm still out there somewhere). The project also had hardware design leadership from Steve Oberlin and software design leadership from Steve Reinhardt. That makes at least three other Steves besides the one who was not involved.
      A couple of technically oriented videos were made by these folks describing the system. (http://www.bibl.ita.cta.br/video105.html and http://www.bibl.ita.cta.br/video104.html)
      These were available as streaming video for a while but may have been retired by now.......in any case some copies do remain shelved at few campus sites.

  43. T90 not an MPP by flaming-opus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Considering how tech savy the author seems to be, it's interesting that he doesn't understand what an MPP is. The T3d IS an mpp, made in response to a wave of mpp designs in the late 80's taking some of cray's market share (thinking machines, paragon, etc) MPP, incidently, stands for Massively Parallel Processing; massively as in hundreds, not 32.

    The T90, on the other hand, is a pure SMP. The processors all sit on a shared bus (actually 256 parallel shared buses). Each CPU was really fast (for the time) and had really big pipes to memory, and really expensive.

    Sorry, just picking nits.

  44. Cray vs. CDC/Cyber by north.coaster · · Score: 1

    In the early (?) days the Cray XMP got the most attention, but CDC continued to make supercomputers. The Cyber-205 was it's main competitor. Funny, I can't find a web page dedicated to it. I wonder if anyone collects them.

    A few places (such as Purdue) even had one of each.

    /Don

    1. Re:Cray vs. CDC/Cyber by kjs3 · · Score: 1

      University of Georgia had a Cyber 205. Odd machine, and interesting to compare what jobs ran better on it than the Cray and vice versa. Software wasn't nearly as polished as the Cray. Doubt more than a handful were ever built. Not really much "competition" for Cray in the end.

  45. Impressive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But do they run Linux?

  46. Mirror by Door-opening+Fascist · · Score: 1
    The site's getting hammered. Here some mirrors:

    Mirror #1

    Mirror #2

  47. Re:Retired? by Kehvarl · · Score: 1

    In Soviet Russia, Beowulf cluster imagines you!

    Shouldn't that be:

    In Soviet Russia, retarded Beowulf cluster imagines you!

  48. Re:Something not so funny... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We must ban the sale of even "retired" supercomputers to the U.S. (which includes Britain). The U.S. would use the supercomputers for fine tuning their nuclear arsenal and for cloning human beings. The U.S simply do not have the same notion of morality [Some Freaky Jesus link] that we have.

    The U.S. are the main oppressors of Iraq, now, and have threatened to veto any United Nations resolution that allows any country from developing nuclear weapons. Such is the nature of the U.S. pig.

  49. Cray 1 Sofa by uscomp · · Score: 1

    I have always wanted a Cray 1 Sofa....

    --
    ago porro quod prospicio
  50. Re:Can't they recycle it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmmm, I do hope you never reproduce. By agreeing with the OP, citing its 'common sense', you in effect agreed to the main tenet: "who cares about old technology ... just melt em down so they can serve a real purpose".
    "Hear hear" is what they say in British Parliament when they agree with someone's position. Why did you use it if you think it doesn't mean anyhting?
    And 'secondly', you can't count (or spell) worth a damn either.

  51. Re:Can't they recycle it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hear, hear! an exclamation of approval from the hearers of a speech.

    Chambers. You were right about 'here here'. Well done.

  52. Re:Retired? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Big Mac?

  53. Re:Can't they recycle it? by Blitzenn · · Score: 0

    hmm. Perhaps I should tell my publisher that he had better meet with you before he publishes my next book then. You certainly have a better handle on the pulse of the reader than I ever did. I am sure that your writings and iterations must certainly have outsold anything I have ever written. I bow to your obvious godliness. I certainly didn't understand that replying in a slashdot forum required precise writing skills. I stand corrected. I should have used the spell checker on the web page and clicked on the grammer checker too. If you get your thrills out of grading english usage on the slashdot forums, then your life is truely pitiful and I am certainly sure that you are not married. I am truely sorry for making such an obviously false accusation. Perhaps you should work on your social skills whilst I run my reply through the grammer checker. (Oops, clicked submit first again, sorry bud!)

  54. Original Cray Museum? by green+pizza · · Score: 1

    Does Cray still have its Museum in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin? I know these days a lot of the Cray buildings are now used by Silicon Graphics and Celestia, but I think Cray still does a fair amount of work in CF.

    1. Re:Original Cray Museum? by fgodfrey · · Score: 1

      Yes, there is still a Cray museum there. I don't think it's officially owned by Cray or SGI anymore, though. I was in it a few years ago. They have some of the much older stuff (CDC machines, the Cray 1, Cray 2, etc). Not sure if they have a T90 or T3E, but I probably wouldn't have noticed since I've seen so many in our machine rooms...

      --
      Go Badgers! -- #include "std/disclaimer.h"
  55. Pictures of it by kylegordon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I visited these dudes a few years ago, when down at my friends employers and visiting their cuppliers (Armari). Got loads of pictures of the Cray T3d right here. Wonderful machine, wonderfully kept.
    Dans machine wasn't quite (apparently) 'the first off the production line - Edinburgh uni (where this T3D came from) wanted one that could be upgraded without a lot of hassle. Cray could only offer them this one, which was their testbed unit, wired for a full complement of processors, but not fully populated. That's why it's innards are absolutely stuffed full of wires. Each wire is also a specific length, to ensure that the length of time it takes for electricity to flow down the wire is accurately accounted for in terms of clock ticks.
    The power switch that the author wished he'd taken a picture of is here
    I loved Dans demo of the differing weight of cooling liquids. He had a milk bottle full of water, weighing a kilo or so, and then an identical bottle weighing about 3 kilos. The plumbing for the liquid cooling was done by a bottling plant systems manufacturer in Daytona if memory serves, and the metal braided hoses that are used in it are of the same type used in Formula One and Nascar cars. Wicked stuff :-)

    1. Re:Pictures of it by kl76 · · Score: 1

      Dans machine wasn't quite (apparently) 'the first off the production line - Edinburgh uni (where this T3D came from) wanted one that could be upgraded without a lot of hassle. Cray could only offer them this one, which was their testbed unit, wired for a full complement of processors, but not fully populated.

      I used to be a sysadmin for this T3D; originally it was SN6007 (the seventh T3D built), delivered as a T3D MC256 (256 PEs). When it was upgraded (initially to MCN320 configuration, later MCN384 then MCN512), it was easier to swap the chassis for one with a bigger, non-power-of-2 (hence the N in MCN) wiremat already installed, than it was to replace the wiremat in situ. The "new" chassis brought its serial number with it, and hence SN6007 became SN6001.

      The first T3D delivered was actually SN6002, to Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center in 1993.

  56. Yeah it will.. by carlmenezes · · Score: 1

    ...and it will run Windows Media Player ...and MS Outlook ...and Internet Explorer ...and will change your start page ...and will install Gator and loads of spyware ...and give you a million popups and viruses

    before it's finished startup.

    But then, it's a supercomputer! So it will then pop-up a message apologizing for the mess and asking for one chance to correct itself. When you click ok, it will close the pop-ups, clean the viruses, get rid of Outlook and then download and install Firefox and Thunderbird :) ...and finally, after 2 weeks without a single pop-up, it will play ONE song "That's the way, aha, aha, I like it!" ...and then you'd go "Aha! Aha! :)"

    --
    Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
    1. Re:Yeah it will.. by argent · · Score: 1

      Dave. What are you doing, Dave. Put down those Windows XP install disks, Dave.

      You're not IBM-compatible, HAL

  57. Re:Retired? by mrscorpio · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Don't just imagine your dreams. Make them a reality. Run Windows XP.

  58. Re:Can't they recycle it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I SO believe you've written books. Coloring books, maybe...

    I certainly didn't understand that replying in a slashdot forum required precise writing skills.

    No, but good writers generally don't forget their craft just because they're on Slashdot. It's obvious you have no skills whatsoever. And forget about grammar; you can't even spell it!

    Now I'm going to mod your ass down...

  59. Re:Something not so funny... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude. MILLIONS of computers are manufactured in china and taiwan every year. Can you say "Imagine a beowulf cluster of those"?

  60. Head in a cray by cjgross · · Score: 1

    If you want to get up close to the Cray Supercomputers of the past, visit the Chippewa Falls Museum Of Industry and Technology in Chippewa Falls, WI. It is about one hour and 45 min. east of Minneapolis, MN. The museum is open daily. Adults can get in for $3.00

    site: http://my.execpc.com/~cfmit/

    It is a great fieldtrip.

    --
    "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."
  61. Cray Museums by cjgross · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you want to get up close to the Cray Supercomputers of the past, visit the Chippewa Falls Museum Of Industry and Technology in Chippewa Falls, WI. It is about one hour and 45 min. east of Minneapolis, MN. The museum is open daily. Adults can get in for $3.00
    Site: my.execpc.com/~cfmit/
    Museum of Industry and Technology
    21 East Grand Avenue
    Chippewa Falls, WI 54729
    715.720.9206 tel

    The University of Minnesota also has a Virtual Cray Museum. http://www.cbi.umn.edu/exhibits/cray/index.html

    --
    "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."
  62. You can own it, but you can't run it! by cjgross · · Score: 1

    As I recall, CRAY owns the OS and you license it. So, if you happened to buy a computer, you could never run it unless you could fork out the cost of the OS license and maintenance for the servers. Besides, who could afford the electricity and cooling?

    --
    "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."
    1. Re:You can own it, but you can't run it! by DarthBart · · Score: 2, Funny

      Eh. You can run a J90 in your house. Its aircooled and just takes two 20 amp 220 circuits.

  63. Re:Can't they recycle it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ooooo, I think he's getting a sweat on :-)

    Did your wife kick you in the nuts on the way out of the house this morning or something?

  64. Re:Retired? by DarthBart · · Score: 1

    So a beowulf cluster of Intel based PeeCees?

  65. A T90?! by DeathByDuke · · Score: 0

    OMG a T90! Quick! Activate the T-800!

  66. Brings back memories! by Kalendraf · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I helped test out that very pictured T3D machine on the lab floor in Chippewa Falls. I helped simulate the chipset for the T3D and wrote diagnostics to test it. I became the resident expert on the "barrier channel" which was a mechanism used for both syncronization and for low bandwidth one-to-all communication.

    Of course, being the very first system, 6001's barrier channel had a bunch of issues to resolve. Armed with just a prom-emulator (each cpu used a serial prom to load it's initial bootcode) and a Tektronics O-scope with a couple probes, I managed to come up with some primitive diagnostics written in assembly to let us determine what was going wrong on the barrier channel. IIRC, there were some banks miswired and some delay signals set wrong which were causing the problems. Once we got past that hurdle, the rest of the bring up went fairly smooth.

    The next box built, SN6002, went to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, and I was fortunate enough to go on the install trip with it. I really enjoyed all the work I did on the T3D, as I got to work with it from design stage, thru test & bringup and eventually travel out to customer sites.

  67. best quote... by greywire · · Score: 1

    I love this line: ".. somewhat like the gullwing doors on a McLaren SLR supercar, makes you giggle like a schoolboy that's just seen his first pair of bare boobies."

    Must been some machine to see... :)

    --
    -- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
    1. Re:best quote... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The T90 series (in particular the T932 with the liquid cooling units) is certainly the prettiest of the non-Cray designed machines. (And its a vector processor...very much in the Cray tradition.)

      The Cray-2 is my personal favorite. The GaAs modules from the Cray-3 are pretty neat too.

  68. spelling homework by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    occures
    probabilty
    withing
    rairly
    steap
    greadual
    Good Luck!

  69. Old Macs by erockett · · Score: 1

    I'm working on collecting old Macs - I've gotten a couple from the chem lab at school when they died, and one from the loft at summer camp (it had been dead for years - I got to take it home). Certainly not as cool as having a Cray, but visitors think it's about as weird. It's my Home for Unloved, Dead, and Dying Macs - kind of a funeral home for them.

  70. Idea by Hobadee · · Score: 1

    Why don't they just take all the old supercomputers and hook them all up to form a supercomputer-ing cluster?

    --
    ...Had this been an actual emergency, we would have fled in terror, and you would not have been informed.
  71. Bragging rights... by RedPhoenix · · Score: 1

    I have a board from Australias first Cray X-MP 22 super computer framed on my wall. .. ok, so it doesn't exactly 'pull the chicks', but it's good for geek bragging rights. ;)

    Red.

    1. Re:Bragging rights... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I managed to collect a few modules (memory and logic) from each of the major Cray designs. Looking at these really gives some appreciation as to the march of technology. My goal is to get all of these together as a set in a custom plexiglas frame for wall mounting. (Some of this stuff - particularly the C3 modules - is fairly exotic looking even today.)

      From the CDC6600 (1960s) I have a "cordwood" discrete transistor logic module (no integrated circuits) and a magnetic core memory plane. The logic modules consist of two circuit boards full of transistors with the passive components (primarily resistors and jumpers) running vertically between circuit boards. The front face of the module is a small aluminum mounting plate with test points. The back face is a set of pins (a connector) that plugged into a chassis mounted socket. The chassis itself was a large "plus" shape, cooled with a traditional freon heat pump.

      From the Cray-1 (1970s) I have one each of the logic and memory modules. The C1 modules have two fairly large circuit boards sandwiched on either side of a heavy copper plate. (Your XMP module presumably looks a lot like this.) The technology is ECL combinational logic. The copper is used as a conductor to transfer heat from the electronics in the module to the chassis frame which (like the 6600) was cooled with a traditional freon heat pump. The C1 chassis is the famous "C" shaped "sofa" (heat exchaner and power supplies hidden under the seats) with the tower of logic and memory modules in the center.

      The circuit boards from the C2 (1980s) are smaller but the ECL chips are packed much closer together and the copper plates were eliminated such that the circuit boards in a module are stacked tightly atop one another. These modules use "pin and spring" vertical interconnects between the various circuit boards that makeup the module. To handle the higher density (more heat) the C2 modules were fully immersed in liquid coolant. As with the C1, I have one each of the C2 logic (part of a multiplier) and memory modules.

      The C3 modules (1990s) are just - well - almost alien looking! The technology is custom GaAs gate arrays. The C3 modules are about 3/8" think, roughly 7" square and look nothing like a traditional printed circuit board. Along one edge of the module is the power connection - four large copper blocks with tapped holes for bolting the module to the bus bars! Along the remaining three edges are sets of connectors on "flex circuits" which disappear into the guts of the module. As with the C2, C3 modules were cooled by full immersion in liquid coolant. Again I have a memory module and a logic module.

      Though not an actual Seymour Cray design, should I ever have the opportunity to snatch up a memory and logic module from a T90 series machine I will certainly do so. (The T90 featured optical system clock distribution and electrically actuated "ZIF" connectors to make swapping out modules easy. The memory modules were built with stacks of high speed SRAMs.)

      I guess thats a long way of saying your not the only one :)

  72. testtes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    test

    (Why can't you look up IP bans?)