28 Apr
1998
28 Apr
'98
7:44 a.m.
<From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com>
<and is populated rather sparsely by chips with date codes from '80 and
<'81. The chips seem to be from Fairchild primarily (the 32 F10470's loo
<like they might be RAM). From Mr. Cole's "limited edition" markings, I
<gather that there were 400 of these boards in his Cray-1.
The Cray-1 was ECL-10k fast for it's time but low density and rams for
that technology were 1 or 4k ECL bipolar. ECL had several
characteristics, FAST, high power consumption and low density. The
copper plate worked with a cooling system to conduct the heat away as
that machine was impossible to air cool and remain that small. Why
small? Conductors propagate singnals at 1nS a foot and a cable of several
feet actually represented a significant delay to the overall sheme of
things inside.
A note: The other commonly known and slightly more recent ECL machine
was the DEC VAX9000, built using ECL-100k built on custom air cooled
hybrids. It also consumed power in great quantities and had special
cooling considerations.
<Any idea how much RAM is on the board? Can I interface the board to my
<Sinclair ZX-81 to create the world's most perverse hybrid?
Your could but the interface would be more than the two combined and it
would eat an amazing amount of power.
Allison
28 Apr
28 Apr
1:06 p.m.
The Cray-1 was ECL-10k fast for it's time but low
density and rams for
that technology were 1 or 4k ECL bipolar.
I do not think the Cray-1s used 10K ECL - I believe they were custom parts
and were faster (10K gates have a delay around 2 nS). Only four types of
chips were used in the whole beast - I think two were OR/NOR gates, one
was a flip-flop, and the other RAM.
The F10470 is indeed a 4K device, with a 15nS access time - quite fast for
its day. 1981 date codes imply that this was from a Cray-1S (-1Ms used MOS
memory, and straight-1s were out of production by then).
The
copper plate worked with a cooling system to conduct the heat away as
that machine was impossible to air cool and remain that small.
Now you know why older Crays tend to be so darn heavy!
The copper plate simply conducted the heat from the board to the tall
aluminum uprights (visible on the -1s, hidden on the X/MP and old Y/MPS).
These uprights carried the cooling fluid.
Although some may be saddened by the fact that Mr. Cole is chopping up a
Cray, keep in mind that the survival rate of the machines is phenominal
- probably 10 to 20 percent of the things tend to get decommisioned
straight to the lobbies of the computing centers, to serve as gate guards.
As a side note, anyone want to buy some 10G logic, for the ultimate in
speed?
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
6:46 p.m.
On Tue, 28 Apr 1998, William Donzelli wrote:
Now you know why older Crays tend to be so darn heavy!
I've seen the weight listed as both 5 and 30 tons for the Cray-1 in news
articles. I assume it's closer to 5, right? At 2 lbs each, the RAM weighs
only (!) 800 lbs or so.
Although some may be saddened by the fact that Mr.
Cole is chopping up a
Cray, keep in mind that the survival rate of the machines is phenominal
- probably 10 to 20 percent of the things tend to get decommisioned
straight to the lobbies of the computing centers, to serve as gate guards.
I read that Cray sold a total of 40 Cray-1's, so even 20% doesn't leave
too many intact machines (although it makes my memory board fairly common
if 16000 were produced).
-- Doug
7:02 p.m.
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7:13 p.m.
20% seems to be a typical rate for the survival of the
rarer computers -
I am told that about 20% of the PERQ 3a's and PERQ 2T4s have survived. Of
course that puts both of them in single figures, alas... Yes I do know
where many of them are, and no I'm not going to post it publically.
That is correct for small(ish) machines, but not for big iron.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
11:20 p.m.
I remember back in '98 when Tony Duell wrote:
I have a notion that location /per se/ wouldn't be the problem, but
rather the power availibe at said location. I beleive that these
ECL machines drew > 100KW at full tilt.
m@ (and your pocketbook for the 'lectriciy)
--
/* Matt Sayler -- mpsayler(a)zen.as.utexas.edu -- atwork?astronomy:cs
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mpsayler -- (512)471-7450
Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations? */
> Although
some may be saddened by the fact that Mr. Cole is chopping up a
Of course I'm saddened by that. I'd like a complete Cray to hack about
on... Of course I'd also need somewhere to put it :-)
7:08 p.m.
I've seen the weight listed as both 5 and 30 tons
for the Cray-1 in news
articles. I assume it's closer to 5, right? At 2 lbs each, the RAM weighs
only (!) 800 lbs or so.
5 or 6, some models (not complete "c"'s) less.
I read that Cray sold a total of 40 Cray-1's, so
even 20% doesn't leave
too many intact machines (although it makes my memory board fairly common
if 16000 were produced).
But how many Cybers are still around? How many ETAs? Even (non-super) IBM
S/360s are very rare (thousands made, maybe a dozen left).
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
7:20 p.m.
On Tue, 28 Apr 1998, William Donzelli wrote:
So the moral of the story is that manufacturers should build furniture
into their computer systems, so when the computer is obsolete, the system
will live on as furniture. :-)
-- Doug
I read that
Cray sold a total of 40 Cray-1's, so even 20% doesn't leave
too many intact machines (although it makes my memory board fairly common
if 16000 were produced).
But how many Cybers are still around? How many ETAs? Even (non-super) IBM
S/360s are very rare (thousands made, maybe a dozen left).
7:54 p.m.
New subject: CM5 carcass scrapped
Some of the coolest machines ever produced (both from an architectural and
aesthetic point of view) had to be the Thinking Machines' CM series. I
just heard that a Los Alamos CM5 was stripped, the carcass was auctioned,
nobody claimed it, and it was scrapped just a couple of days ago (sniff).
For a list of stuff that was auctioned off, check out
http://www.bentleysauction.com/auctions/cat_albu_nm042598.html
The CM5 carcass was listed simply as "2082 1 CAB". Anybody on the
list from New Mexico? Hang out at this place out if so.
-- Doug
9520
days inactive
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days old
8 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
allisonp＠world.std.com -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
mpsayler＠zeke.as.utexas.edu -
william＠ans.net -
yowza＠yowza.com