Discovered this very interesting read published in 1991 by Arthur Trew and Greg Wilson at EPCC. Full Index pages and sample sections over on Google Books here. Or just the header information and index in this document ppp_bookpdf Link to the publishers page for the book where samples and a full .PDF download version is […]
Past, Present, Parallel : A survey of Available Parallel computing systems Read More »
The end of the ’90s was tough few years for supercomputers. These articles describe the spat that broke out between Cray and NEC a Japanese firms that was accused of selling supercomputers at less than cost price. After the spat was settled Cray entered an agreement to resell NEC supers SX-5 & SX-6 into the
Supercomputers going cheep ( too cheep ? ) 1997 Read More »
Also seen at – http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/super-users-view.html A History of Supercomputing at Florida State University Jeff Bauer (Written in early 1991) As the result of an unsolicited proposal by the Florida State University (FSU) to the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE), a collaborative agreement was initiated in late 1984 between the State of Florida, FSU, DOE
Florida State University replace ETA-10 with Cray YMP from 1991 by Jeff Bauer Read More »
This cautionary tale of how a USD10 million Cray machine was built but never delivered due to regulatory delay. Turns out it was not super-computers but more likely to be a rogue scientist that let the nuke secrets out the flask. From Wikipedia: “In 2004, the Pakistani metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan, a key figure in
Delayed delivery obsoleted a Cray XMP-EA SN1205 before delivery. Read More »
Encyclopaedia of Parallel Computing David Padua – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana USA DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09766-4 Copyright Information Springer Science+Business Media, LLC2011 Publisher Name Springer, Boston, MA Print ISBN 978-0-387-09844-9 Number Of Entries 796 This most excellent reference book is highly recommend to gain insight into the many aspects of parallel and high performance computing. Available in print
Encyclopedia of Parallel Computing (index) Read More »
This interesting book of conference proceedings can be read online here: https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft0f59n73z;brand=ucpress Set in ’93 being 10 years after the first Frontiers conference the talks capture the key topics during the early stages of the massively parallel processing era. Articles by Les Davis and Bo Ewald and others. Frontiers of Supercomputing II A National Reassessment
Frontiers of Supercomputing II Read More »
Static can kill delicate electronics. From Cray Channels CC_V4_N4 “Cray Research’s new system test equipment focuses on quality.” The company’s newly-established in house system test facility includes a JEOL Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and a Tracor Northern Xray spectrum analyzer. The SEM and X-ray spectrum analyzer units together offer an extremely wide magnification range (10 to 180,000 times
Static can kill delicate electronics Read More »
The representation of floating point numbers and the “accuracy”, repeatability and reversibility of arithmetic operations has long be a topic of discussion amongst Cray customer and scientific users. The Cray machines up to the C90 range all used 64 bit Cray floating point arithmetic. When representing the long smooth curve of real numbers using digital
Cray Floating point numbers Read More »
It has recently been announced (December 2023) that Les Davis has passed away aged 93. An early and foundational influence on Cray Research Les worked closely with Seymour Cray and John Rollwagon to deliver the vision of supercomputing. Lester ‘T’ Les Davis was a senior engineer at Cray Research. As an early employee he worked
Les Davis (1930 — 2023) Read More »
The Following appeared as Article 9037 on HPC wire on 27th March 1995 recording the end of the Cray-3 project and Cray Computer Corporation. CASH-STARVED CRAY COMPUTER CLOSES, SEEKS CHAPTER 11 Mar. 27 NEWS FLASH by Norris Parker Smith, Editor at Large HPCwire ============================================================================= Why did Seymour Cray’s company, Cray Computer Corporation (CCC), descend into
CASH-STARVED CRAY COMPUTER CLOSES, SEEKS CHAPTER 11 – March 27th 1995 Read More »
A great book about the early days ( up to 1995 ) Link on Amazon. “The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical wizards behind the supercomputer” The Supermen Book cover Cover Blerb After a rare speech at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, in 1976, programmers in the audience had suddenly
The Supermen by Charles J. Murray Read More »
References to the the book in Cray internal literature. Searching in the archives found these mentions NEWSLETTER-Gigaflop_Gazette-Volume_6_Number_11-November_27_1991 The employee gift given in January of 1987 anticipated Cray Research’s 15th anniversary and was a sample of the Lee Friedlander book Cray at Chippewa Falls from NEWSLETTER-Gigaflop_Gazette-Volume_6_Number_13-December_27_1991 The company’s fifteenth anniversary was noted by a
“Cray at Chippewa Falls” Photo Book by Lee Friedlander Read More »
High Performance Computing Workshop Performance Programming on the Cray YMP–EL by Dr. Andrew J. Pounds High Performance Computing Group Georgia Institutute of Technology. Click link for .pdf High performance programmining on the Cray EL Vector_OCR A great introduction into how to make your programs run fast on a Cray EL.
High Performance Computing Workshop “Performance Programming on the Cray YMP-EL” Read More »
Advanced Systems magazine 1994 review of the EL94.
Advanced systems magazine “Vector Monster” review of Cray EL-94 Read More »
The history of Cray branded computers is long and has a few twists along the way. Beginning as a classic start-up in 1976 and building to a multi-million dollar company Cray Research Inc went through cycles of boom, innovation, not-quite-bust, buyout (three times), occasional refocus and of course a split with the founder. A few
Cray and Other Timeline documents Read More »
