Responding to msg by ianf@simple.sydney.sgi.com ("Ian Farquhar") on Mon, 22 Aug 9:38 AM
You're talking about silicon fab lines here, Tim. As far as I am aware, Cray has never fab it's own chips. Indeed, most of their boards which I have seen (I, II, Y-MP/8 and Y-MP/EL) have used chips sourced from fairly well- known vendors, such as VLSI Technologies.
The original series of systems (I, II and X-MP) actually used huge numbers of three types of chips. From memory, one was a couple of NAND gates, one was a register chip, and the third was a couple of K of SRAM. More recently, the full Y-MP's have been implemented in commercial ECL gate arrays (6500 gates per chip for the full Y-MP's), and the original EL used CMOS 100K arrays. I have been trying to get one of the computing industries choicest pieces of marketting junk: the Cray Y-MP Gate Array paperweight. :) Of course, given my recent career change, I don't think one will be coming my way anytime soon for some strange reason....
Ian, Not asking for state or trade "secrets" but: 1. Is MIPS new "supercomputer" R8000 in the running as array elements for super-supercomputers? 2. Who is in the offing to succeed Cray and others as NSA's grateful suppliers? 3. Will there be more on-base hardware and software production, a "circling of the wagons" as crypto becomes more public? 4. And, thus, an even sharper (and more secret and competitive) line between governmental and commercial crypto hardware and code? 5. Who is NSA (or other TLAs) underwriting as lesser known SRCs, not-for- or for-profit? This is an update on where the jobs are for the "finest mathematicians" other than TLAs. 6. Is NSA (like CIA and NRO) bifurcating into an even more super-supersecret arm and another friendly, public one in response to wider use of crypto and ostensible pressure from the likes of Senators Moynihan and Kerrey? (And the recent RSA to-dos, murder threat, PKP lawsuit, are ploys.) FYI, zero, hopefully minus, security clearance here. Cheers, John