Cray-1 - The home supercomputer
It took me almost a year to complete the Cray-1 project during my spare time. When I decided to build a physical copy of the first supercomputer ever, as faithful as possible, I found on the web a lot of inspiring examples (just like this one by Chris Fenton). In 1975 the 80 MHz Cray-1A was announced. Excitement was so high that a bidding war for the first machine broke out between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, the latter eventually winning and receiving serial number 001 in 1976 for a six-month trial. Since then, the Cray-1 supercomputer reigned as the world’s fastest from 1976 to 1982 (source).
My personal 1:8 Cray-1A was made laser cutting some plexiglass sheets after a careful drafting process of the main vertical framework, which originally hosted over 60 miles of wire with no segment longer than 3 inches, to minimize signal delays. Amazing! My Cray-1A is equipped with a Rasperry Pi 2 board (out of 12 possible parallel slots) running a customized Os: a dedicated I2C controller drives a 16x2 characters LCD blue display while wi-fi and bluetooth interfaces guarantee wireless connections.
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Hai mai cercato un posto dove architettura, cultura geek e hardware vintage si incontrano davvero? Dal 2004 questo spazio è il laboratorio digitale di Simone Garagnani: qui si sperimentano idee, si collezionano storie nerd, si parla da tempo immemore di soluzioni BIM, rilievi digitali, computer graphics e retrocomputing. Ma non è nato tutto da solo: alle origini, fra i banchi universitari, c’erano anche Pasquale Squillace e Giuseppe Pernigotti. Da quei giorni, il blog è diventato una calamita per chi vuole sporcarsi le mani tra tecnologie d’epoca, cultura underground, digitalizzazione avanzata e creatività architettonica. Se ami la contaminazione tra passato, innovazione e un pizzico di ironia nerd, sei nel posto giusto.
Since 2004, this blog has been Simone Garagnani's digital playground - where geek culture, science, architecture, engineering ITs and vintage hardware come together. Here you can find hands-on experiments with retrocomputing, stories about underground nerd culture, and in-depth explorations of BIM, high-resolution digital surveying, and computer graphics for architecture, engineering, and construction. The blog was originally launched during my university years together with Pasquale Squillace and Giuseppe Pernigotti. Over time, it has grown into a hub for anyone interested in crossing wires between technology, creative design, and the hidden treasures of digital heritage. If you're passionate about mixing past innovations with new digital adventures, and enjoy a good dose of nerd irony, welcome, you'll feel right at home!
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Ultimi commenti
SiliconSimon (VIC-20 The friend…): Thanks for the feedback Trevor, even though my reply comes so late! :)Petr (Faro Scenect and …): Hello. I have a Kinect XBOX360. I installed Scenect (scenect_5.2.100.32597_wma nual_x64_setup) on my c…
Ray Randolph (Cray-1 - The home…): One of two machines on my bucket list to make on my laser cutter. The second is an Enigma machine. C…
Trevor Dwyer (VIC-20 The friend…): Hi there, I feel your pain on updates and the internet not being the same these days – well since 199…
SiliconSimon (Cray-1 - The home…): If someone is interested in my little Cray’s files, please PM me since I do not often read comments o…
Robert (Cray-1 - The home…): If it’s possible, I would love to get the files from you for this project. I have a Cray-1 chip sitti…
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