The Cray J90 series (code-named ''

Jedi Jedi (), Jedi Knights, or collectively the Jedi Order are the main heroic protagonists of many works of the '' Star Wars'' franchise. Working symbiotically alongside the Old Galactic Republic, and later supporting the Rebel Alliance, the Jedi O ...

'' during development) was an air-cooled

vector processor In computing, a vector processor or array processor is a central processing unit (CPU) that implements an instruction set where its instructions are designed to operate efficiently and effectively on large one-dimensional arrays of data called ...

supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...

first sold by

Cray Research Cray Inc., a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is an American supercomputer manufacturer headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It also manufactures systems for data storage and analytics. Several Cray supercomputer systems are listed i ...

in 1994. The J90 evolved from the Cray Y-MP EL

minisupercomputer Minisupercomputers constituted a short-lived class of computers that emerged in the mid-1980s, characterized by the combination of vector processing and small-scale multiprocessing. As scientific computing using vector processors became more pop ...

, and is compatible with Y-MP software, running the same

UNICOS UNICOS is a range of Unix and after it Linux operating system (OS) variants developed by Cray for its supercomputers. UNICOS is the successor of the Cray Operating System (COS). It provides network clustering and source code compatibility layer ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

. The J90 supported up to 32

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFE ...

processors with a 10 ns (100 MHz) clock. It supported up to 4 GB of main

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

and up to 48 GB/s of memory bandwidth, giving it considerably less performance than the contemporary

Cray T90 The Cray T90 series (code-named ''Triton'' during development) was the last of a line of vector processing supercomputers manufactured by Cray Research, Inc, superseding the Cray C90 series. The first machines were shipped in 1995, and featured a ...

, but making it a strong competitor to other technical computers in its price range. All input/output in a J90 system was handled by an IOS (Input/Output Subsystem) called IOS Model V. The IOS-V was based on the VME64 bus and

SPARC SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture originally developed by Sun Microsystems. Its design was strongly influenced by the experimental Berkeley RISC system developed ...

I/O processors (IOPs) running the

VxWorks VxWorks is a real-time operating system (or RTOS) developed as proprietary software by Wind River Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aptiv. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems requiring real-time, determin ...

RTOS A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which ...

. The IOS was programmed to emulate the IOS Model E, used in the larger

Cray Y-MP The Cray Y-MP was a supercomputer sold by Cray Research from 1988, and the successor to the company's X-MP. The Y-MP retained software compatibility with the X-MP, but extended the address registers from 24 to 32 bits. High-density VLSI ECL tech ...

systems, in order to minimize changes in the UNICOS operating system. By using standard VME boards, a wide variety of commodity peripherals could be used. The J90 was available in three basic configurations, the J98 with up to eight processors, the J916 with up to 16 processors, and the J932 with up to 32 processors. Each J90 processor was composed of two chips - one for the scalar portion of the processor, and the other for the vector portion. The scalar chip was also notable for including a small (128 word)

data cache A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer to reduce the average cost (time or energy) to access data from the main memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory, located closer to a processor core, which ...

to enhance scalar performance. (Cray machines have always had instruction caching.) In 1997 the J90se (''Scalar Enhanced'') series became available, which doubled the scalar speed of the processors to 200 MHz; the vector chip remained at 100 MHz. Support was also added for the GigaRing I/O system found on the

Cray T3E The Cray T3E was Cray Research's second-generation massively parallel supercomputer architecture, launched in late November 1995. The first T3E was installed at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center in 1996. Like the previous Cray T3D, it was a ful ...

and

Cray SV1 The Cray SV1 is a vector processor supercomputer from the Cray Research division of Silicon Graphics introduced in 1998. The SV1 has since been succeeded by the Cray X1 and X1E vector supercomputers. Like its predecessor, the Cray J90, the SV1 used ...

, replacing IOS-V. Later, SV1 processors could be installed in a J90 or J90se, further increasing performance within the same frame.

External links

Fred Gannett's Cray FAQ

{{Cray computers Computer-related introductions in 1994 J90 Vector supercomputers