On Thu, 9 Mar 2023, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
That picture serves to remind us of the packaging and
cooling genius
that went into the CDC 6000 series machines, which could fairly be
called the first supercomputers. Logic like that and more, but in a
much smaller package so it can run faster. I suppose it didn't hurd
that timing margins were shrunk down to microscopic values (and, if you
try to analyze the design, sometimes they become negative, but somehow
the machine worked anyway). They added a bunch of amazing magic to the
core memory as well.
So, what defines a "supercomputer"?
Microcomputer Minicomputer mainframe supercomputer
"lose a screw" / "lose screwdriver" /"lose scope" /
"lose technician"
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com