The Cray EL90 series 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 type of 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 instruc ...

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 1993. The EL90 series 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 popul ...

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

UNICOS UNICOS is a range of Unix and later 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 layers fo ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

. The range comprised three models: * EL92, with up to two processors and 64 megawords (512 MB) of

DRAM Dram, DRAM, or drams may refer to: Technology and engineering * Dram (unit), a unit of mass and volume, and an informal name for a small amount of liquor, especially whisky or whiskey * Dynamic random-access memory, a type of electronic semicondu ...

in a deskside chassis: dimensions 42×23.5×26 inches or 1050×600×670 mm (height × width × depth) and 380 lb/172 kg in weight. * EL94, with up to four processors and 64 megawords (512 MB) of DRAM, in the same cabinet as the EL92. * EL98, a revised Y-MP EL with up to eight processors and 256 megawords (2 GB) of DRAM in a Y-MP EL-style cabinet (62×50×32 inches or 2010×1270×810 mm, 1400 lb/635 kg in weight). The EL90 series Input/Output Subsystem (IOS) was based on the

VMEbus VMEbus (Versa Module Eurocard bus) is a computer bus standard physically based on Eurocard sizes. History In 1979, during development of the Motorola 68000 CPU, one of their engineers, Jack Kister, decided to set about creating a standar ...

and a Heurikon HK68

Motorola 68000 The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...

-based processor board (or IOP). The IOP also provided the system's serial console. Extra cabinets could be added to house extra disks. Larger EL90 models consumed 6 kVa per cabinet and could be powered from regular machine room mains power. The EL90 series was superseded by the Cray J90 series.

References

Cray-History Cray YMP-EL page on website

Cray YMP-EL sales document

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Computer-related introductions in 1993 El90 Vector supercomputers {{super-compu-stub