80 Miillllion Flops
Modern Mechanix shares this fascinating 1979 Popular Science article about the Cray-1 supercomputer. I used to work for Cray Research, and one of the many positions I held there involved debugging Cray-1 module assemblies at their manufacturing plant. I also worked on the Cray-2, perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing computer system ever built, and spent 11 months in Colorado building the prototype of Seymour Cray's revolutionary Cray-3 system, which used Gallium Arsenide chips instead of silicon. He went on to design the follow-on Cray-4 system, before being tragically killed in a car accident.
Oddly enough, I was looking at a couple of Cray-2 and Cray-3 photo archives this morning, so this gives me a good excuse to link to them as well.
[Link: Review of the Cray-1 Supercomputer]
[Link: CPAP Cray-2 Photo Archive]
[Link: DigiBarn Cray-3 Collection]
Comments
hi mr.balihai!
so nice to meet you!
i see you are a brainiac in
addition to being a supercool bloghost.
amazing!
thank you so much for visiting my blog + wishing me a speedy recovery!
i am very honored + appreciative.
Posted by: mod*mom | July 17, 2006 12:32 AM
Wow! That was a fast two hours.
Thanks!
Posted by: Gas Pipe Jimmy | July 17, 2006 4:04 AM
mod*mon: a brainiac, moi?! Nah. I work with a few though.
I'm glad to see you're feeling well enough to keep up with the blogging! We've had our battles with the Big C here at Chez Bali Hai too.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | July 17, 2006 5:51 AM
There is actually a 'bench' here in Munich in the Deutsche Museum. I used to sit and dream on it about electric sheep ...
Posted by: orangeguru | July 19, 2006 5:44 AM
I remember seeing the 'bench' at the DM, Dieter. I didn't sit on it though.
We have a supercomputer museum near my work that has enough old iron to build a silicon bridge across the Mississippi River.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | July 19, 2006 6:01 AM