The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS (2014)
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS (2014)
#2Reading this makes me wonder what is being done to preserve other, more recent, and less popular systems. If the material relating to Cray-1, probably one of the most iconic computers ever made, has been preserved this poorly I don't have much hope.
Old web pages suffer from a similar fate. The fast pace of technological advancement make things difficult but we really should be doing more.
Re: The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS (2014)
#3Discussion from the last time around:
Re: The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS (2014)
#4Reading this makes me wonder what is being done to preserve other, more recent, and less popular systems. If the material relating to Cray-1, probably one of the most iconic computers ever made, has been preserved this poorly I don't have much hope. Old web pages suffer from a similar fate. The fast pace of technological advancement make things difficult but we really should be doing more.
That is really hard to answer. Wikipedia says "Over 80" Cray-1s were sold, so they weren't all that common, despite being the iconic representation of a supercomputer.
The answer is different for each machine. There are emulators for some of the older machines. See http://simh.trailing-edge.com/ and http://simh.trailing-edge.com/links.html for some.
Here's an HP-2000 emulator:
1. Telnet to mickey.publicvm.com (yes, telnet)
2. Slowly alternate CTL-J and CTL-M until you see a “PLEASE LOG IN” message.
3. Enter “HEL-T001,HP2000,1″ . The resulting output includes:
Try exe-castle.b300, exe-kingdm.g100, exe-spawar.r500
To play the 1975 version of Oregon Trail type exe-oregon
To play the 1978 version of Oregon Trail type exe-ore2
To hunt the Wumpus, type exe-wumpus
DO YOU NEED INSTRUCTIONS (YES/NO)?YES
THIS PROGRAM SIMULATES A TRIP OVER THE OREGON TRAIL FROM
INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI TO OREGON CITY, OREGON IN 1847.
YOUR FAMILY OF FIVE WILL COVER THE 2000 MILE OREGON TRAIL
IN 5-6 MONTHS --- IF YOU MAKE IT ALIVE.
YOU HAD SAVED $900 TO SPEND FOR THE TRIP, AND YOU'VE JUST
PAID $200 FOR A WAGON.Re: The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS (2014)
#5Reading this makes me wonder what is being done to preserve other, more recent, and less popular systems. If the material relating to Cray-1, probably one of the most iconic computers ever made, has been preserved this poorly I don't have much hope. Old web pages suffer from a similar fate. The fast pace of technological advancement make things difficult but we really should be doing more.
While I assume there was an official Cray operating system for the Cray-1, in those days it was not unusual for the buyer of such a system to write their own OS, particularly in the DOE/DOD/NSA which is who bought most of them.
Re: The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS (2014)
#6Reading this makes me wonder what is being done to preserve other, more recent, and less popular systems. If the material relating to Cray-1, probably one of the most iconic computers ever made, has been preserved this poorly I don't have much hope. Old web pages suffer from a similar fate. The fast pace of technological advancement make things difficult but we really should be doing more.
it's a real problem. other engineering disciplines have it too - "we don't have the prints anymore" is common in manufacturing - but you can always take apart and measure a mechanical device. reverse engineering software is much more difficult. that's one advantage of open source software, it's easy to archive. we should try to archive bug trackers and mailing lists too.
Re: The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS (2014)
#7Back in the '90s, I worked under a manager who, as an engineer, had written the linker for Cray Unix. He's retired now, but we're still in touch. I forwarded this story to him - hopefully he can help some. He went back to Cray not long after we worked together, so he might know someone still around from those olden days.
George was a great manager to work for, too... he's the one who taught me the phrase "It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission". Back in his Cray days, he was told to write a single-pass linker for arbitrary theoretical reasons by the architects. He went ahead and wrote a double-pass linker anyway, because he felt it was the Right Thing To Do. Later, customers praised the stability and debugability of Cray Unix, relative to other Unix of the era (old SunOS == suXX0r), so his "forgiveness rather than permission" paid off.
I actually worked with a whole crew of ex-Cray people in the late '90s, after Silicon Graphics bought them out and started running them into the ground. Smartest team I've ever worked with.
Re: The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS (2014)
#8As a current employee at Cray, this makes me happy.
Re: The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS (2014)
#9Reading this makes me wonder what is being done to preserve other, more recent, and less popular systems. If the material relating to Cray-1, probably one of the most iconic computers ever made, has been preserved this poorly I don't have much hope. Old web pages suffer from a similar fate. The fast pace of technological advancement make things difficult but we really should be doing more.
it's a real problem. other engineering disciplines have it too - "we don't have the prints anymore" is common in manufacturing - but you can always take apart and measure a mechanical device. reverse engineering software is much more difficult. that's one advantage of open source software, it's easy to archive. we should try to archive bug trackers and mailing lists too.
In this case it's not about reverse engineering - the actual binaries don't exist anymore either. I'm quite impressed that they've found a way of reading those old disk packs, just hope someone finds one with the right stuff.
Re: The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS (2014)
#10Reading this makes me wonder what is being done to preserve other, more recent, and less popular systems. If the material relating to Cray-1, probably one of the most iconic computers ever made, has been preserved this poorly I don't have much hope. Old web pages suffer from a similar fate. The fast pace of technological advancement make things difficult but we really should be doing more.
The great irony of the Information Age is nothing will be remembered.