Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer
Encyclopedia
The Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer (ECS) was a large Meiko Computing Surface supercomputer
. This transputer-based, massively parallel
system was installed at the University of Edinburgh
during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
and the DTI for a much larger system using T800 transputers and a MicroVAX
fileserver. The Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer Project (ECSP) was formed to manage and support the facility, which was commissioned at the end of 1987.
Over the next few years, the system received several upgrades, including more transputers (reaching, at its peak, around 400 processors) and the installation of M²VCS and MeikOS system software, which enabled multi-user
access and removed the need for the MicroVAX.
In 1990, the Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer Project was succeeded by the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, which consolidated the project with other parallel computing resources and activities within the University. The ECS continued to be used for a variety of academic and commercial research work.
In October 1992 the ECS was reconfigured as a SPARC
-hosted Computing Surface with three SPARC "host" processors running SunOS
and around 380 T800s. The system was finally decommissioned in August 1994.
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
. This transputer-based, massively parallel
Massively parallel
Massively parallel is a description which appears in computer science, life sciences, medical diagnostics, and other fields.A massively parallel computer is a distributed memory computer system which consists of many individual nodes, each of which is essentially an independent computer in itself,...
system was installed at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
History
Following a pilot project involving an early 40-transputer Computing Surface installed in April 1986, funding was obtained from SERCScience and Engineering Research Council
The Science and Engineering Research Council used to be the UK agency in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities including astronomy, biotechnology and biological sciences, space research and particle physics...
and the DTI for a much larger system using T800 transputers and a MicroVAX
MicroVAX
The MicroVAX was a family of low-end minicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation . The first model, the MicroVAX I, was introduced in 1984...
fileserver. The Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer Project (ECSP) was formed to manage and support the facility, which was commissioned at the end of 1987.
Over the next few years, the system received several upgrades, including more transputers (reaching, at its peak, around 400 processors) and the installation of M²VCS and MeikOS system software, which enabled multi-user
Multi-user
Multi-user is a term that defines an operating system or application software that allows concurrent access by multiple users of a computer. Time-sharing systems are multi-user systems. Most batch processing systems for mainframe computers may also be considered "multi-user", to avoid leaving the...
access and removed the need for the MicroVAX.
In 1990, the Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer Project was succeeded by the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, which consolidated the project with other parallel computing resources and activities within the University. The ECS continued to be used for a variety of academic and commercial research work.
In October 1992 the ECS was reconfigured as a SPARC
SPARC
SPARC is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Sun Microsystems and introduced in mid-1987....
-hosted Computing Surface with three SPARC "host" processors running SunOS
SunOS
SunOS is a version of the Unix operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems. The SunOS name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4 of SunOS...
and around 380 T800s. The system was finally decommissioned in August 1994.