The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]
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The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]
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Re: The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]
#2[dead]
Re: The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]
#3to deploy a 2nd hand Cray-1 at UQ, we had to raise the ex-IBM 3033 floor, it turned out the bend radius for flourinert was NOT the same as a water cooled machine. We also installed a voltage re-generator which is basically a huge spinning mass, you convert Australian volts to DC, spin the machine, and take off re-generated high frequency volts for the cray, as well as 110v on the right hz for boring stuff alongside. the main bit ran off something like 400hz power, for some reason the CPU needed faster mains volts going in.
The flourinert tank has a ball valve, like a toilet cistern. we hung a plastic lobster in ours, because we called the cray "Yabbie" (Queensland freshwater crayfish)
That re-generator, the circuit breakers are .. touchy. the installation engineer nearly wet his trousers flipping on, the spark-bang was immense. Brown trouser moment.
The front end access was Unisys X11 Unix terminals. They were built like a brick shithouse (to use the australianism) but were a nice machine. I did the acceptance testing, it included running up X11 and compiling and running the largest Conways game of life design I could find on the net. Seemed to run well.
We got the machine as a tax-offset for a large Boeing purchase by Australian defence. End of life, one of the operators got the love-seat and turned it into a wardrobe in his bedroom.
Another, more boring cray got installed at department of primary industries (Qld government) to do crops and weather modelling. The post cray-1 stuff was .. more ordinary. Circular compute unit was a moment in time.
(I think I've posted most of this to HN before)
Re: The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]
#4The CRAY-1 was so ridiculously ahead of its time that it took until the Pentium MMX (1997) for “ordinary” computers to catch up to its raw performance.
That’s 20 years or about 10,000X the available VLSI transistors via Moore’s Law.
Re: The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]
#5Blew my mind age 4. Then found out about the imos transputer. And robotics magazine. 70's were popping. Ponging?
Re: The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]
#6The CRAY-1 was so ridiculously ahead of its time that it took until the Pentium MMX (1997) for “ordinary” computers to catch up to its raw performance. That’s 20 years or about 10,000X the available VLSI transistors via Moore’s Law.
Not terribly impressive considering an average 20 year old super computer c. 2005 is still about 100x as fast as today's best consumer cpus
Re: The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]
#7Blew my mind age 4. Then found out about the imos transputer. And robotics magazine. 70's were popping. Ponging?
Inmos not imos, if my memory cells serve ne correctly. I lived overseas at the time, so I did not hear about the Cray till like 1980/81. My friend (we were like 12) had an idea to write a simulator for digital circuits, and I was puzzled as to why you would want to simulate a circuit when you can build it and test it. He was way ahead of his time.
Re: The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]
#8The CRAY-1 was so ridiculously ahead of its time that it took until the Pentium MMX (1997) for “ordinary” computers to catch up to its raw performance. That’s 20 years or about 10,000X the available VLSI transistors via Moore’s Law.
I wonder how many times faster my iPhone 17 Pro Max is?
Sometimes I like to remind myself we are living in the future. A future that seemed like SciFi when I was a kid in the 70s!
Sadly I don’t think we will ever see Warp Drives, Time Travel or World Peace. But we might get Jet Packs!
Re: The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]
#9> The aesthetics of the machine have not been neglected. The CPU is attractively housed in a cylindrical cabinet. The chassis are arranged two per each of the twelve wedge-shaped columns. At the base are the twelve power supplies. The power supply cabinets, which extend outward from the base are vinyl padded to provide seating for computer personnel.
Re: The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]
#10The CRAY-1 was so ridiculously ahead of its time that it took until the Pentium MMX (1997) for “ordinary” computers to catch up to its raw performance. That’s 20 years or about 10,000X the available VLSI transistors via Moore’s Law.
Not terribly impressive considering an average 20 year old super computer c. 2005 is still about 100x as fast as today's best consumer cpus
Well, yeah, Dennard scaling ended around 20 years ago!