Homebrew Cray-1 140
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."
The originals really are something else (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.
Re:Xilinx... (Score:4, Interesting)
Wow! (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?
No software (Score:5, Interesting)
Never the less, I have to admire the effort put into this.
Re:The originals really are something else (Score:5, Interesting)
IIRC, they also deliberately hired both tall and short women, and assigned the appropriate subset of connections to each.
Re:No software (Score:5, Interesting)
Where's the VAX? (Score:3, Interesting)
When's he going to build the VAX front end? TFA alludes to the fact that the Cray-1 needed a dedicated mini as a front end, and sounds like he might actually get a diskpack from one (or image thereof).
Re:The originals really are something else (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wow! (Score:4, Interesting)
Why, cray tell, does it run so slowly?
You do realize the Cray-1 is from the late 1970s, right? 80MHz with this architecture was smoking fast.
Re:Really cool (Score:4, Interesting)
I clicked the "+" next to the title, then selected "interesting"
Re:Can't find the software? (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.
NCAR Cray 1-A (Score:5, Interesting)
The new computing center is still under construction, so no supercomputers are located there yet. :-) Cray 1-A serial number 3 is in the hallway as an exhibit on floor 1B, and if you are near the NCAR Mesa Lab, it is open for self guided tours most days of the year.
Serial number 3 was in active use until its decommissioning in 1989 and ran COS (Cray Operating System). It was connected to the NCAR designed Hyperchannel network known initially as the NCAR Local Network (NLN) and later as the Mainframe and Server Network (MASnet). There were rows of 100 MB and 200 MB "washing machine" disk drives connected to it, and it had access to the NCAR Mass Storage System (MSS) for archival storage. Graphical output could be sent to plotters, large Xerox printers, B&W microfiche or B&W or color 35mm film. For a speed comparison, I once ran a Madelbrot generator to produce a 640x480 image on both the Cray 1-A and a Sun 60 workstation. The vectorized C code on the Cray took just under 8 seconds, the Sun several minutes to produce the image. Alas, we don't have much in the way of documentation anymore nor is there any of the original software.
Re:The originals really are something else (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:The originals really are something else (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The originals really are something else (Score:4, Interesting)
a shorter way of saying this is "phase matched cables".
http://www.mwjournal.com/journal/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_7184&tite=Phase%20Matching%20and%20Tracking%20of%20Coaxial%20Cable%20Sets [mwjournal.com]
pay no mind to the fact that it's discussing microwave applications. it's just as relevant to high speed digital (or lower speed, further distance) digital electronics. keep in mind how far this interconnect had to travel due to part density and cooling needs.
of course for modern electronics one might use tunable LC networks on either end to accommodate variations in commodity sourced cables.
also, i take issue with ECL being described as inefficient. CMOS is inefficient when transitioning a lot. ECL merely has a constant power drain, which also happens to make it less noisy. It was also differential before LVDS was cool (or even around).
Re:The originals really are something else (Score:4, Interesting)
For those of you in/visiting the DC area you can check out a couple of old Crays @ the National Cryptologic Museum on the outskirts of Ft Meade. http://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/museum/virtual_tour/index.shtml [nsa.gov]
On exhibit in the museum are two Cray supercomputers. The XMP-24 on display is the upgrade to the original XMP-22 that was the first supercomputer Cray ever delivered to a customer site. It was in operation from 1983 to 1993 and was arguably the most powerful computer in the world when it was delivered. It used serial processing to conduct 420 million operations per second.
The second generation Cray, the YMP, replaced the older version in 1993. It had a 32 gigabyte (32 billion bytes) memory capacity. In 1993 most personal computers held only 16 million bytes. The YMP used vector processing, a very powerful form of overlapping, parallel processing to conduct 2.67 billion operations per second. The YMP was decommissioned and went on display at the museum in 2000.
The museum is lots of fun and definitely worth a visit.