In the tunnel under my house, I meet with elves. They give me advice on how to make supercomputers better.
"If you plow the field, what would you prefer: two strong bulls or 1024 hens?"
- Seymour Cray
Seymour Cray, father of "supercomputers", creator of the industry of supercomputers, electronics engineer and mathematician.
The developers of Edison (which developed the road traffic calculation system at intersections and the taxi order exchange application ) join in the greeting.
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“Anyone can create a fast processor. But the highlight is to make the whole system work fast. ”
“Curiously, I used a Mac to develop the next version of the supercomputer, and Apple recently bought my supercomputer to develop the next Mac.”
“The main problem with programmers is that you can never tell them what they are doing until it’s too late.”
“One of the principles by which I am guided is not to do what others do. If possible, you should always spend energy on something else. ”
- Many are interested in the question - what kind of CAD system did you use to create a magnificent Cray-1? - asked Kray.
- I remember, I used a pencil of the third number and paper lined with a square grid.
- Yes, but this is not enough ... - the interviewee was confused.
- Yes, I almost forgot, this is important. It helps to write on the back side of the paper so that the marking lines do not dominate in the drawing.
- Why do you use such a simple command system in your cars?
- You see, it's all in my memory. - I can not understand the complex system of commands, it does not fit in my head - complained Cray.
Once, a problem occurred with one of the Cray supercomputers. Loaded downloader. Engineers called technical support for Cray Computer Corporation.
- We have a problem, on our Cray-1 flew downloader.
- The situation is abnormal - the first time we are faced with such a problem. Please wait on the line, I'll see what can be done.
...
- This is a very old model, and we can not now find a bootloader to send it to you. Please do not worry, I will connect you now to Mr. Kreus.
“And how will he help, in fact ...”
- He will help.
...
- Seymour Cray is listening.
- Hello Mr. Cray, we lost the bootloader, and in technical support they said that you did not have his code ...
- Write.
- What?
- Take a pen and write. A0 BF 10 05 ...
Cray dictated 4 kilobytes of the loader from memory.
- Mr. Cray, how do you manage to make such fast computers?
- You know, once I spoke with a friend of a physicist. And he said, “you know, Seymour, every time when stagnation begins in physics, God invents new elementary particles.” It seems to me that something similar is happening with supercomputers.
- Tell me, Seymour, I saw your Ford in the parking lot - why did you buy this particular car? I now think what kind of car I should buy, and in no way will I choose ...
- It's simple. I went to the nearest car dealership, walked over to the nearest seller, pointed my finger at the nearest car, and said: I buy it.
“But ...”
- This is the best way, colleague. It allows me to devote a maximum of time to the development of supercomputers. Recommend.
“I consider myself a man of science, but I most often make decisions based on intuition.”
Kray's goal was to create the fastest scientific computer .
Supercomputers are needed to solve problems of numerical simulation . Where a huge amount of complex calculations are required, processing a large amount of data in real time, or solving a problem can be found by simply looking at the set of values ​​of the set of initial parameters ( Monte-Carlo method ).
CDC 6600. The price of the base model is $ 6,891,300 (at the current rate of 40-50 million dollars)
His system was cooled by freon, which was fed through pipes. The CDC 6600 had 10 peripheral processors, each of which was dedicated to managing I / O and storing the entire data queue.
The module of the ferromagnetic memory CDC 6600 computer (1961), size: 10.8cm x 10.8cm (6.5 inch), capacity: 1024 bits.
The main processor had a 60-bit register and a very small set of instructions, because it dealt only with information that was previously processed by peripheral processors.
In 1966, the United States refused to allow CDC to export the CDC 6600 computer license for the French Atomic Energy Agency to prevent France from its atomic program.
Read more here - Club of former employees of the CDC .
(The picture is clickable - size 5616 Ă— 3744)
The famous C-shaped computer case, for which the Cray 1 received the nickname "sofa", pursued, of course, not only the goal to attract the attention of customers to themselves with their appearance. The utilitarian purpose of this design consisted in a significant reduction in the length of the conductors inside the computer, which is still one of the important problems in the design of computing devices.
There was not a single conductor longer than four feet in the “sofa”. Especially for this computer Cray designed a unique cooling system that used freon.
Together with Cray-1, the macro assembler CAL ( Cray Assembly Language ) and Cray FORTRAN were supplied, which was the FORTRAN compiler - the most common programming language at the time for scientific calculations.
In order to facilitate the transition to the use of vector computing, the young company Massachusetts Computer Associates, Inc. came to Cray Research. (Compass). The software she developed, called the “vectorizer” (vectorizer), has optimized standard program code written in FORTRAN, taking into account the capabilities of Cray-1 for processing vector operations.
Cray Operating System .
Adventures of Andre & Wally B
In 1984, thanks to the power of Cray X-MP, LucasFilm studio created the world's first 3D cartoon - The Adventures of Andre & Wally B.
Cray supercomputers have been used to create special effects in blockbusters such as Jurassic Park and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
(The Crayon and the Wizards Behind the Supercomputer
“History of Silicon Valley of the Midwest with the same types and exciting image of Kray. However, there could be more technical details. ” - Daniel Gackle
Recommended bibliography from Y Combinator .
- Seymour Cray
Seymour Cray, father of "supercomputers", creator of the industry of supercomputers, electronics engineer and mathematician.
Achivki Seymour Cray:
- 1958 - For the year assembled a prototype of a 6-bit supercomputer from defective transistors.
- 1960 - First machine for germanium transistors instead of lamps (CDC 1604).
- 1963 - Outperformed IBM 3 times in performance and 40% in price (CDC 6600).
- 1971 - In order not to dismiss 4 engineers refused their salaries.
- 1975 - The first commercially successful vector supercomputer. The use of register-register command architecture (Cray-1).
- Design of a supercomputer in the form of a sofa (Cray-1).
- 1988 - 500 MHz (Cray 3).
- Found a replacement for silicon - gallium arsenide (GaAs) - six times faster than silicon chips.
- 1994 - 1 GHz (Cray-4).
- In order not to be distracted by visiting the White House and meeting with the President of the United States, he refused the honor of being awarded the National Medal of the United States in the field of technology and innovation.
- He dug out his own anti-nuclear Vault13 with fuel and water for 4 years.
Happy birthday Seymour Cray!
The developers of Edison (which developed the road traffic calculation system at intersections and the taxi order exchange application ) join in the greeting.
')
Mindset
“Anyone can create a fast processor. But the highlight is to make the whole system work fast. ”
“Curiously, I used a Mac to develop the next version of the supercomputer, and Apple recently bought my supercomputer to develop the next Mac.”
“The main problem with programmers is that you can never tell them what they are doing until it’s too late.”
“One of the principles by which I am guided is not to do what others do. If possible, you should always spend energy on something else. ”
- Many are interested in the question - what kind of CAD system did you use to create a magnificent Cray-1? - asked Kray.
- I remember, I used a pencil of the third number and paper lined with a square grid.
- Yes, but this is not enough ... - the interviewee was confused.
- Yes, I almost forgot, this is important. It helps to write on the back side of the paper so that the marking lines do not dominate in the drawing.
- Why do you use such a simple command system in your cars?
- You see, it's all in my memory. - I can not understand the complex system of commands, it does not fit in my head - complained Cray.
Once, a problem occurred with one of the Cray supercomputers. Loaded downloader. Engineers called technical support for Cray Computer Corporation.
- We have a problem, on our Cray-1 flew downloader.
- The situation is abnormal - the first time we are faced with such a problem. Please wait on the line, I'll see what can be done.
...
- This is a very old model, and we can not now find a bootloader to send it to you. Please do not worry, I will connect you now to Mr. Kreus.
“And how will he help, in fact ...”
- He will help.
...
- Seymour Cray is listening.
- Hello Mr. Cray, we lost the bootloader, and in technical support they said that you did not have his code ...
- Write.
- What?
- Take a pen and write. A0 BF 10 05 ...
Cray dictated 4 kilobytes of the loader from memory.
- Mr. Cray, how do you manage to make such fast computers?
- You know, once I spoke with a friend of a physicist. And he said, “you know, Seymour, every time when stagnation begins in physics, God invents new elementary particles.” It seems to me that something similar is happening with supercomputers.
- Tell me, Seymour, I saw your Ford in the parking lot - why did you buy this particular car? I now think what kind of car I should buy, and in no way will I choose ...
- It's simple. I went to the nearest car dealership, walked over to the nearest seller, pointed my finger at the nearest car, and said: I buy it.
“But ...”
- This is the best way, colleague. It allows me to devote a maximum of time to the development of supercomputers. Recommend.
“I consider myself a man of science, but I most often make decisions based on intuition.”
Supercomputer
Kray's goal was to create the fastest scientific computer .
- “A supercomputer is any computer that made Seymour Cray.”
- “A supercomputer is any computer that weighs more than a ton.” (Gordon Bell and Don Nelson)
- A supercomputer is a computer that is significantly more powerful than that available to most users of a machine.
Supercomputers are needed to solve problems of numerical simulation . Where a huge amount of complex calculations are required, processing a large amount of data in real time, or solving a problem can be found by simply looking at the set of values ​​of the set of initial parameters ( Monte-Carlo method ).
First supercomputer
CDC 6600. The price of the base model is $ 6,891,300 (at the current rate of 40-50 million dollars)
His system was cooled by freon, which was fed through pipes. The CDC 6600 had 10 peripheral processors, each of which was dedicated to managing I / O and storing the entire data queue.
The module of the ferromagnetic memory CDC 6600 computer (1961), size: 10.8cm x 10.8cm (6.5 inch), capacity: 1024 bits.
The main processor had a 60-bit register and a very small set of instructions, because it dealt only with information that was previously processed by peripheral processors.
In 1966, the United States refused to allow CDC to export the CDC 6600 computer license for the French Atomic Energy Agency to prevent France from its atomic program.
Read more here - Club of former employees of the CDC .
Design "sofa"
(The picture is clickable - size 5616 Ă— 3744)
The famous C-shaped computer case, for which the Cray 1 received the nickname "sofa", pursued, of course, not only the goal to attract the attention of customers to themselves with their appearance. The utilitarian purpose of this design consisted in a significant reduction in the length of the conductors inside the computer, which is still one of the important problems in the design of computing devices.
There was not a single conductor longer than four feet in the “sofa”. Especially for this computer Cray designed a unique cooling system that used freon.
Together with Cray-1, the macro assembler CAL ( Cray Assembly Language ) and Cray FORTRAN were supplied, which was the FORTRAN compiler - the most common programming language at the time for scientific calculations.
In order to facilitate the transition to the use of vector computing, the young company Massachusetts Computer Associates, Inc. came to Cray Research. (Compass). The software she developed, called the “vectorizer” (vectorizer), has optimized standard program code written in FORTRAN, taking into account the capabilities of Cray-1 for processing vector operations.
Cray Operating System .
The first computer cartoon
Adventures of Andre & Wally B
In 1984, thanks to the power of Cray X-MP, LucasFilm studio created the world's first 3D cartoon - The Adventures of Andre & Wally B.
Cray supercomputers have been used to create special effects in blockbusters such as Jurassic Park and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Video
Seymour Cray Award
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- CDC Era
- Cray-1 Story
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- A Tribute to Seymour Cray
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Book
(The Crayon and the Wizards Behind the Supercomputer
“History of Silicon Valley of the Midwest with the same types and exciting image of Kray. However, there could be more technical details. ” - Daniel Gackle
Recommended bibliography from Y Combinator .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/310850/
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