Richard M. Russell. The Cray-1 Computer System, Communications of the ACM, January 1978, pp. 63-72. ACM DL Link |
1978
Vector processing engine
128 MFLOPS! cool.
Cylinder to ensure wiring distances small
Banked memory
Registers
A > Address(24 bit), B > cache for A
S > Data (64 bit), T > cache for S
V > Vector, VM > vector mass
Supporting : VL > Vector Length, VM, PC, Base Address, Limit Address, Flag, Mode, and exchange Addr
Chaining
result of one func unit as input to other
> bypass basically
Interrupt
stop PC inc, complete mem operations, vector proc
call exchanges by OS to handler
Software/Vector processing
Cray OS, Fortran compiler
2 or 4 or more elements in vectors > better than scalar (earlier 100s required)
complex vector routines > scalar loop calls
array increments = integer, start point and array.
Front End
at least a minicomputer connected by a
cray link
Cooling problems
Circuit boards
make wires equal length, or standing waves on ground line. prop delay balancing > purely resistive load.
5 layer PCB