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Homebrew Cray-1

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the when-i-was-a-child dept.

egil writes "Chris Fenton built his own fully functional 1/10 scale Cray-1 supercomputer. True to the original, it includes the couch-seat, but is also binary compatible with the original. Instead of the power-hungry ECL technology, however, the scale model is built around a Xilinx Spartan-3E 1600 development board. All software is available if you want to build one for your own living room. The largest obstacle in the project is to find original software."

6 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. The originals really are something else by Skyshadow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Back when I was an intern with SGI, we took a day off* to visit the Chippewa Falls Museum**, which has a good-size collection of Control Data and Cray Supercomputer relics along with other items relevant to my interests***.

    I got to poke around inside of an original Cray-1. To me, the most interesting thing about it was just how insanely packed the internal wiring was; I'd been expecting the intricate plumbing, but the sheer volume of wires running from Point A to Point B was really impressive. I mentioned this to the guy giving the tour, who turned out to be a retired manufacturing supervisor -- he told me that the hardest part of his job was finding women with both enough skill and small enough hands to handle the internal wiring jobs. The thing had been assembled *by hand*, every connection in this crazy bulk of wired clipped or soldered into place one after another.

    Anyhow, after that I sat on the couch. It was not comfy.

    * My boss was *pissed* about this -- she went around telling anyone that would listen that "interns are here to work, not go sightseeing". This marks the one and only time in my career that anyone in HR has ever done anything worthwhile, calling her up and telling her this was part of the program and she didn't get a vote.
    ** Seymour Cray moved to Chippewa Falls, his hometown, when he was still with Control Data because he felt most middle managers wouldn't want to drive that far just to bother him. Visionary man, that Seymour Cray.
    *** Stuff from Leinenkugals.

    --
    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
    1. Re:The originals really are something else by Tom+Arneberg · · Score: 5, Interesting
      The originals are definitely worth seeing! I am surprised how few people take an hour to see the Cray museum (now called "Chippewa Falls Museum of Industry and Technology", http://cfmit.org/). The museum used to be housed in the Engineering building (where I'm typing from right now). I had to get a special camera pass to take our family Christmas Card picture with a Cray 1 in 1991: http://arneberg.com/family/xmas/xmas_card.cgi?1991 (Sorry about the photo quality...those scans were made in the mid-90s; I really should re-scan with modern technology!)

      BTW, the Leinie's Lodge is also well worth visiting! It's less than a half mile from the museum, and is actually the number one tourist attraction in at least a 50-mile radius.

  2. Wow! by line-bundle · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now that's closer to true News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters. Not the Mac fish tanks.

    However, I am a little disappointed that he didn't do something with the tower part of his cray. Cooling perhaps? Blinkenlights?

    How does it compare in performance with the original?

  3. No software by dk90406 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He has the needed software for the FPGA, but he has (so far) been unable to find some software to run on the machine. At least that is what I got from the TFA. It seems like no-one (including various 3 letter agencies) have copies of stuff so "old".
    Never the less, I have to admire the effort put into this.

    1. Re:No software by permit594 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The original Crays were delivered with no software -- not even an OS. We had to roll our own OS. I started at Sandia Labs in 82 as a fresh PhD. I still had some work to do on my software-based dissertation, so I got to play on the "new" Cray. I had been used to waiting a *long* time for my (FORTRAN) program to compile on UCLA's IBM 360... The first time I compiled on the Cray, it finished so quickly I thought I had a syntax error in my job submission command. For the times, that machine was FAST!

  4. Re:Can't find the software? by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's obvious from your comment that you haven't downloaded and inspected his source code. It includes some verilog files for making the FPGA behave like a Cray-1, and some python files for debugging it and loading opcodes into the simulated cray. However, if you want to run vintage 1970s computer applications----weather simulations, cryptanalysis, computational fluid dynamics, etc., you would be hard pressed to find any.