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      мллллллл  ллллллллн оллллллллн     ллл       лллллл
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    млллллллн    лллллллл  ллллллллн               оолллллллллп
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  млпллллллмллллмолллллллл ол пллллл           м   лнллллл             м
 мл оллллллллллп  ллллллллл плм  плллмм    ммлллп ол олллн         ммлл
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    ппппп                ппллп      ппппп        ппппппппппппп
          ARRoGANT                CoURiERS      WiTH     ESSaYS

Grade Level:       Type of Work           Subject/Topic is on:
 [ ]6-8                 [ ]Class Notes    [Information on the Cray ]
 [ ]9-10                [ ]Cliff Notes    [Supercomputer           ]
 [x]11-12               [ ]Essay/Report   [                        ]
 [ ]College             [x]Misc           [                        ]

 Dizzed: 10/94  # of Words:709   School: ?              State: ?
ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>Chop Here>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ
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A Cray SuperComputer Comes to the University of Toronto

                         By Andrew Reeves-Hall
--------------------------------------------------------------------


     The Cray X-MP/22 manufactured by Cray Research Incorporated (CRI) of
Minneapolis, Minnesota was delivered and installed at the U of Toronto this
September. The Cray is a well respected computer - mainly for its extremely
fast rate of mathematical floating-point calculation.  As the university
states in its July/August computer magazine "ComputerNews", the Cray's
"level of performance should enable researchers with large computational
requirements at the university of Toronto and other Ontario universities to
compete effectively against the best in the world in their respective
fields."

     The Cray X-MP/22 has two Central Processing Units (CPUs) - the first
'2' in the '22'. The Cray operates at a clock rate of 105 MHz (the regular,
run-of-the-mill IBMPC has a clock rate of 4.77 MHz). By quick calculations,
you would be led to believe the Cray is only about 20 times faster that the
PC. Obviously, this is not the case. The Cray handles data considerably
differently than the PC. The Cray's circuits permit an array of data (known
as a 'vector') to be processes as a SINGLE entity. So, where the IBMPC may
require several clock cycles to multiply two numbers, the Cray performs
everything in one clock cycle. This power is measured in Millions of
Floating Point Operations Per Second (MFLOPS) - which is to say the rate at
which floating-point operations can be performed. The Cray MFLOPS vary as
it does many activities, but a rate of up to 210 MFLOPS (per CPU) can be
achieved.

     The second '2' in the X-MP/22 title refers to the two million 64-bit
words (16Mb) of shared central memory. This can be expanded to four million
words in the future if the need arises. But it doesn't stop there! The Cray
can pipe information back and forth between the CPU memory and the
Input/Output Subsystem (IOS). The IOS then takes it upon itself the store
the information in any of the four storage devices: i) one of the four 1200
Mb disk drives (at a rate of 5.9Mb every second), ii) one of two standard
200ips 6250bpi tape drives, iii) a Solid State Storage Device (SSD) (which
is much like a 128Mb RAM Disk!), or iv) through to a front-end computer
(the U of T uses both the IBM4381 and a DEC VAX). These computers would be
programmed (usually in FORTRAN) and the information passed onto the Cray.
The results would then be transfered back to the front end computers.

     The 4 year old Cray was bought used from the California NASA research
centre where it was used in aerodynamic calculations. This means less cost
to buy it and the assurance that it has been 'burned in'. In case you
wanted one for yourself, the U of T was able to purchase the Cray for the
low-low price of $12 million. Over the next five years, the University
predicts the total cost will probably be $25 million when maintenance,
staff and other costs are taken into consideration. To help out, the
Ontario Government put in $10 million. By doing this, all other Ontario
University researchers are assured of access at a reduced cost. By the way,
to buy time on the system, it'll cost you $2000 per hour.  But Ontario
researchers only have to pay 7% of that - $140 per hour. Their first
commercial customer is OMNIBUS Graphics of Toronto who plan to use the Cray
in the graphic videos. If you saw the movie 'The Last Starfighter', you
will have already experienced the graphic capabilites of the Cray (remember
the some of the space scenes!). The Cray did all of the calculations
required for those scenes and let another graphics computer to do the
menial task of drawing the lines and filling with the calculated colour.

     There is so much to talk about when the word 'Cray' pops to mind! If
you are seriously interested in this amazing computer and/or you are
interested in purchasing time on the system, please contact the people
below:

The Centre for Large Scale Computation at the U of T
Llyod Parker, Director
978-8255

Facilities Manager
Dr. Edmund West
978-4085

Supercomputer User's Group (for University Researchers, etc)
Professor Philip Kromberg
978-4971

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