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Lot 616

Cray 3/SUPER SCALABLE SYSTEM "PIM" CHIPS.
Group of 2 logic boards, each 25 x 25 mm, and a PIM (Processor-In-Memory) chip, 30 x 30 mm, c.1994.

5 December 2018, 14:00 EST
New York

US$2,000 - US$3,000

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Cray 3/SUPER SCALABLE SYSTEM "PIM" CHIPS.

Group of 2 logic boards, each 25 x 25 mm, and a PIM (Processor-In-Memory) chip, 30 x 30 mm, c.1994.
Provenance: from a longtime associate of Seymour Cray and employee of Control Data Corporation, Cray Computer Corporation and SRC Computer.

THE BRAIN OF THE ULTIMATE SPYING MACHINE.
The Cray-3/SSS was a joint project with NSA and their Supercomputer Research Center (SRC) to produce a massively parallel supercomputer that combined 2 Cray-3s with a Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) array with up to one million processors, utilizing PIM chips developed by the SRC. This was Seymour Cray's answer to the massively parallel computing that was becoming more prevalent, and he eventually planned to upgrade the system with as many as 30 million processors! The applications for this technology were numerous, but the NSA were, understandably, interested in utilizing it for image processing, pattern recognition, signal processing, sophisticated graphics applications, seismic processing—spying, essentially. Cray Computer Corporation hoped that the project would incite interest in the private sector, but, despite a successful test and demonstration in early March 1995 utilizing 256,000 processors and positive reports in trade journals, Cray was forced to declare bankruptcy a few weeks later.
Included here are likely the some of the few remaining components of this project. They come from a longtime associate and an employee and CDC and later Cray Computer Corporation and SRC Computer.

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