Convex Computer: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:52, 29 December 2005

Revision as of 18:45, 7 January 2006

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Convex was formed in [[1982]] by Bob Paluck and Steve Wallach in [[Richardson, Texas]]. It was originally named '''Parsec'''. They planned on producing a machine very similar in architecture to the [[Cray Research]] [[vector processor]] machines, with a somewhat lower performance, but with a much better [[price/performance ratio]]. In order to lower costs, the Convex designs were not as technologically aggressive as Cray's, and were based on more mainstream chip technology, attempting to make up for the loss in performance in other ways.

Their first machine was the '''C1''', released in 1985. The C1 was very similar to the [[Cray-1]] in general design, but used a slower memory and main CPU. They offset this by increasing the capabilities of the vector units, including 128 64-bit registers, double that of the Cray. It also used [[{{virtual memory]]}} as opposed to the [['''statically paged memory]]''' system of the Cray machines, which improved programming. It was based on [[CMOS]] chips, and generally rated at 20 MFLOP/s peak for double precision (64 bits), and 40 MFLOP/s peak for single precision (32 bits), about 1/5th the normal speed of the Cray-1. They also invested heavily in advanced automatic vectorizing [[compiler]]s in order to gain performance when existing programs were ported to their systems. The machines ran a [[BSD]] version of [[Unix]] known as '''ConvexOS'''.

The '''C2''' was a crossbar-interconnected [[multiprocessor]] version of the C1, with up to 4 CPUs, released in 1988. It used newer [[ECL]] chips for a boost in clock speed from 10 MHz to 25 MHz, and rated at 50 MFLOPS peak for double precision per CPU (100 MFLOPS peak for single precision). It was Convex's most successful product.

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Another speed boost was planned in the '''C4''', which moved the hardware implementation to [[GaAs]]-based chips, following an evolution identical to that of the Cray machines, but the effort was too little, too late. Some considered the whole C4 program to be nothing more than chasing a business in decline. By this time, Convex was losing money.

In 1994, Convex introduced an entirely new design, known as the '''Exemplar'''. Unlike the C-series [['''vector computer]]''', the Exemplar was a parallel-computing machine based on off-the-shelf HP-PA [[RISC]] chips, connected together using [[Scalable Coherent Interconnect|SCI]]. First dubbed '''MPP''', these machines were later called '''SPP''' and '''Exemplar'''. The expectation was that a software programing model for parallel computing could draw in customers. But the type of Customers Convex attracted believed in fortran and brute force rather than sophisicated technology. The Operating System also had terrible performance problems which could not easily be fixed. Eventually, Convex established a working partnership with HP's hardware and software divisions. Initially it was intended that the Exemplar would be binary-compatable with HP's HPUX. But eventually it was decided to port HPUX to the platform and sell the platform as standalone servers.

In 1995, Hewlett-Packard bought Convex. HP sold Convex Exemplar machines under the '''S-Class''' and '''X-Class''' titles, and later incorporated some of Exemplar's technology into the '''V-Class''' machine.