12 Jun
2001
12 Jun
'01
3:24 a.m.
On June 12, John Allain wrote:
Anybody want to say a word or two about 205's?
My recollection was that it was the first Seymour Cray
machine, probably about 20+ MIPS, probably fixed/short
electrical path, and probably rectangular (pre circular)
shape. Anything right?
Oh nonono. Seymour Cray was one of the founders of CDC in 1957. He
was the primary architect of nearly all of their early machines, the
first of which I believe was the 1604, introduced in 1958.
Seymour Cray left CDC in 1972 to form Cray Research, the first
product of which was the Cray 1 which shipped in 1976.
About the Cyber 205...CDC started the design of the "Star 100" in
the mid 1960s. It wasn't completed until 1973, and being based on
1960s technology, it wasn't competitive. It was redesigned in newer
LSI technology and re-released as the "Cyber 203E" in 1979. Shortly
thereafter it was renamed to "Cyber 205".
But yes, it is rectangular. And big. I would give my right arm to
be able to restore/preserve/own a functional Cyber205 (or any Cyber
for that matter, anybody have a smaller one available?)...the one at
Purdue seems to have been gutted, sigh.
-Dave McGuire