19 Dec
2006
19 Dec
'06
7:43 p.m.
Didn't Seymour Cray do this on one of his later
machines? The Cray 2?
Seems like it was a 5 input And gate.
I think it was the early Cray-1 line. Four chip types - 2 gates, a
flip flop, and a memory chip.
To me, it seems like a really dumb idea. If he could get the chip
house (Fairchild?) to make a JK flip flop, certainly he could have had
them make some more complex gates, like AOIs or adders. With a few
more chip types, I bet the Cray-1 could have been a much better
machine (cheaper, more reliable, maybe a tad faster).
For that matter, one has to wonder why he just did not use off the
shelf MECL III. Methinks it was NIH syndrome.
--
Will