Parallel Element Processing Ensemble: Difference between revisions

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The '''Parallel Element Processing Ensemble''' (also known as '''PEPE''') was one of the very early [[parallel computing]] systems. This computer was originally designed by [[Bell Labs]] and built in the mid-1970s by [[Burroughs Corporation]] at their Great Valley Labs engineering facility in [[Paoli, Pennsylvania]]. The original goal was to build a computer system that could simultaneously track up to 288 incoming [[ballistic missile]] [[warhead]]s.<ref name=silogic>[http://www.silogic.com/PEPE/PEPE.html PEPE - Parallel Element Processing Ensemble] Last updated on June 8, 2011.</ref><ref name=Ford>{{cite book|author=R. Michael Ford|title=Parallel supercomputing in SIMD architecture|edition=1st|publisher=CRC Press|year=1990|page=7|id=ISBN 0-8493-4271-6}}</ref><ref>[http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=AD0911667 Real-Time Advanced Data Processing Parallel Element Processing Ensemble (PEPE)], June 30, 1973, Final Report for Contract DAHC60-72-C-0031, prepared by the System Development Corporation of Huntsville, Alabama for the U.S. Army Advanced Ballistic Missile Defense Agency.</ref> The design later evolved into the [[Burroughs Scientific Computer]] for commercial sales, but a lack of sales prospects led to it being withdrawn from the market.

The design featured an array of 288 (8 × 36) identical processing elements and [[Content-addressable memory|associative addressing]]. Each processing element contained a minimum of control logic, the bulk of the control being concentrated in a common control unit. The control unit read instructions from memory, decoded them, and issued instructionsthem to all processing elements simultaneously so that the elements were required to execute exactly the same instruction at exactly the same time. The elements were capable of executing a complete single address instruction repertoire permitting any desired arithmetic or logical operation.

A [[Burroughs B1700]] computer system was used as a test and diagnostic computer. A custom software package, called TRANSET, which executed on the B1700 was used to debug and maintain PEPE's processing elements.