IBM Advanced Computer Systems project: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:16, 15 June 2024

Revision as of 19:37, 28 August 2024

Line 1:

{{Short description|1960s supercomputer architecture}}

The '''ACS-1''' and '''ACS-360''' are two related [[supercomputer]]s designed by [[IBM]] as part of the '''Advanced Computing Systems''' project from 19611965 to 1969. Although the designs were never finished and no models ever went into production, the project spawned a number of organizational techniques and architectural innovations that have since become incorporated into nearly all [[high-performance computing|high-performance computers]] in existence today. Many of the ideas resulting from the project directly influenced the development of the [[IBM System p|IBM RS/6000]] and, more recently, have contributed to the [[Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing]] (EPIC) computing paradigm used by [[Intel Corporation|Intel]] and [[Hewlett-Packard|HP]] in the [[Itanium]] processors.

After the ACS project folded, the engineers were given the choice to rejoin other divisions of IBM. Many declined as it would require them to return to the east coast from California. A number formed MASCOR in 1970 but this was short-lived as they were unable to raise capital. [[Gene Amdahl]] took the opportunity to start his own company, building IBM-compatible mainframe computers using the [[Emitter-coupled logic|ECL]] designs worked on for ACS. [[Amdahl Corporation]]'s 470V/6 were both faster and less expensive than IBM's own high-end designs.