Whats a MassPar?

From: Roger Ivie <IVIE_at_cc.usu.edu>
Date: Fri May 28 13:41:15 1999

> Two large chassis (size of old fridge) rolled into the salvage yard near
> me, labeled MassPar and one of them has 8 big, I think, MFM drives in it.
> Anybody know what this stuff is, or have interest in it? Its cheap, and
> looks intact and very good shape.

It's a massively parallel supercomputer containing thousands of four bit
processors. It's a SIMD model; i.e., the thousands of four bit processors
are all executing the same instruction simultaneously. MassPar was working
on special FORTRAN and C compilers to run the thing. It's controlled by
a Digital Ultrix workstation, either a Firefox or a DECstation 5000 depending
on its age.

Roger Ivie
ivie_at_cc.usu.edu
Received on Fri May 28 1999 - 13:41:15 BST