Some of my supercomputer buddies out there from back in the day would correctly identify the massive machine below as a Cray 2. The mega azz-kicking rocket propelled computer of it’s generation. The difference between it and the Cray 1 is they got rid of the “window seats” and upped the computational horsepower on the order of megaflops… Got to “play” with one of these once…actually about 12 CPU seconds…which is all it took to process a computation that took a small campus of building size IBM General Processing Machines (AKA Mainframes) a year to do.
The other pic? The new Apple Mac-Pro.
What goes round comes round.
Now don’t get me wrong here, the Apple is no Cray…And the Cray certainly “ain’t” no Apple, as it’s sole function in life was to move massive numbers from Bucket “A” to Bucket “B” after performing whatever mathematical gyrations questing scientists and mathematicians far above this poor boy’s head could come up with…
Back in the day I belonged to a group of rather nondescript guys “of limited notoriety” who usually got the call shortly after the customer plugged one of those things in, taking down the power or a small city…
“Oh, you actually wanted that to work?”
Little round machines…Indeed.
About the only thing that hasn’t changed is the price.
Cray 2 Towers
Apple Mac Pro
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