Cray XMS
The first of the air cooled supermini Cray computers originally developed by Supertec and acquired by Cray Research. The XMS was a clone of the X-MP architecture implemented in CMOS technology.
” The Instruction Unit executes the Cray X-MP instruction set, enabling programs currently running on a Cray XMP to be used without modification on the XMS.”
The XMS, being a small machine, was a huge step for Cray Research. Used to building a small number of very expensive machine this system was the first step into departmental compute servers. Whilst not a big commercial or reliability success this machine changed the target market for Cray systems. This machine was succeeded by the Cray EL.
- 36 MFLOPS peak vector performance; 18 MIPS peak scalar Performance
- One CPU with 32, 64, or 128 MBytes of four- ported, 16-way interleaved Error Correction Code (ECC) memory
40 MByte/sec VME-based I/O system
Peripheral hardware can be interfaced to a CRAY XMS computer system through the VME-based lOS that communicates with the CPU via a 40-Mbyte/s channeL CRAYXMS computer systems support the following peripheral hardware:
• Up to eight 1.56-Gbyte DS-2 disk subsystems (there must be one DS-2 in a system).
• A single 6.2-Gbyte disk array subsystem (DAS) that is capable of providing a sustained data transfer rate exceeding 13 Mbyte/s on large blocks. There is a maximum of three DS-2 disk subsystems if a DAS is included in the configuration.
• A 9-track tape subsystem (TD-1 and TCU-1); 75 ips with recording densities of 800, 1600, and 6250 bpi.
• Network connections via Ethernet (EI-1) or Network Systems Corporation (NSC) HYPERchannel.
• A 2.5-Gbyte, 8-mm cartridge tape drive subsystem (EX-1).
• A 150-Mbyte, 1/4-inch archive cartridge tape drive subsystem (AD-1)
A technology start-up called Supertek created a CMOS implementation of the Cray XMP processor architecture with a view to complementing the Cray XMP at a much lower price-point. Launched in ‘89, Supertek managed to sell about ten “Supertek S-1” machines and then started development of a Cray YMP processor implementation. After Cray acquired Supertek in 1990, the S-1 was briefly released to market rebranded as the Cray XMS. In practice the processor emulation was well received but the input / output subsystem (IOS) was not robust enough for production supercomputing.
Jimbo reports : When I spoke to folks in the 1440 el development crew I understood that the reason the XMS/EL went as it did was cause the XMP archiceture was so well studied and understood doing a clone in cmos was not the hard bit. The thing that knobbled the xms/El was the IOS technology, built as a VME arch it really never had the balls for the job.esp the IOBBs. You know that the IOS-f was to be the IO processor that was to be for the J90 but it fell too far behind the curve.
Only 1 CPU but 32,64 or 128 Mbytes of memory options.
ESDI or Disk array for storage.
Sales brochures :
CRAY_XMS_Brochure_1991 and Flyer
Technical Manuals specific to this machine:
SG-3093 A Brief Overview of Your CRAY XMS Computer System 1991
SR-3085 Cray XMS Systems IOS Reference
STK 6401 Brochure April 1987 Supertec flyer
Cray Research and Dutch organisation develop petroleum exploration software
Cray Research announced in July 1991 that it has signed an agreement in principal with the Dutch research organization TNO (Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek), Delft, The Netherlands, to jointly develop a new generation of commercial seismic application software for the petroleum industry. The resulting software will make seismic modeling on high-performance computers more accurate and useful in the discovery of oil and gas.
As part of the agreement, Cray Research will provide a CRAY XMS computer system, to DELSI, as the project is named. The system will be used as a platform for the development of commerical products based on prototype software developed by DELPHI, a seismic data processing research project headed by A. ]. Berkhout at the Delft University of Technology. Cray Research has been associated with the DELPHI project fo r the past five years and is one of the 22 sponsoring corporations.
To help broaden the use of high-performance computing at all levels of the petroleum industry, three portions of prototype software code have been identified for commercialization. They are model-based algorithmic approaches, which focus on seismic energy to discern detailed geological characteristics of the potential hydrocarbon reservoirs.
Using the CRAY XMS system, the DELSI team will make these codes easier to use through enhancements, applying IEEE standards, writing software documentation, and executing case studies.
The CRAY XMS system will be installed at TNO and, through a high-speed network, linked to the CRAY Y-MP system located at SARA (StichtingAcademisch Rekencentrum Amsterdam), the Netherlands national supercomputer center The DELSI project will make the commercialized software available on Cray Research’s entire product line of high-performance computers.