I worked at the Roseville, MN, plant in the early 80's as a CPU designer. 100K ECL. The machine was the Integrated Scientific Processor, an attached processor that could be added to an 1100/80 system. Max configuration was 4 CPU's (model 1100/84) plus 2 ISPs. The ISP was a vector processor that had approximately the same peak performance of a CRAY-1, and higher average performance. (In part because we handled the "short vector problem" more elegantly, so the last few elements of every long vector didn't pay a time penalty for dealing with the tail end of a long vector. There were a few other architectural tweaks that contributed.)
The program was not a success. Reason 1: Oil prices came way down, so seismic data reduction and reservoir simulation markets dried up, Reason 2: Univac management was timid and slow at decision-making and starved the project. Had we been properly resourced and delivered a couple years earlier, things could have been different.
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I worked at the Roseville, MN, plant in the early 80's as a CPU designer. 100K ECL. The machine was the Integrated Scientific Processor, an attached processor that could be added to an 1100/80 system. Max configuration was 4 CPU's (model 1100/84) plus 2 ISPs. The ISP was a vector processor that had approximately the same peak performance of a CRAY-1, and higher average performance. (In part because we handled the "short vector problem" more elegantly, so the last few elements of every long vector didn't pay a time penalty for dealing with the tail end of a long vector. There were a few other architectural tweaks that contributed.)
The program was not a success. Reason 1: Oil prices came way down, so seismic data reduction and reservoir simulation markets dried up, Reason 2: Univac management was timid and slow at decision-making and starved the project. Had we been properly resourced and delivered a couple years earlier, things could have been different.
Anyway, it was a hugely fun CPU to work on.