The Jim Austin Computer Collection

CONVEX C220

What is it

This is a vector supercomputer designed in the 1980's and used in academic research at Birkbeck University.

History

This is a Convex Super computer dated around 1992. It originated at Birkbeck University in London and was given to Mike Ross (corestore.org). It was given to the collection in 2008 when Mike shifted his collection to the US.

Specification

Some basic statistics are;

vector processor.
100 million floating point operations per second
128 Mb of physical memory
16 billion bytes of hard disk storage
used ECL logic for every thing apart from the vector processor that used CMOS gate arrays.*
Back plane was 0.3 inches thick*
designed in 1986*
3000 logic packages and 150 gate arrays used.*

* - from the paper given below.

Price

In 1992: valued at $1.4 million.

Photos of the system

Convex c220

This is a picture of a similar machine in situ in Darsbury labs in the UK.

Convex C220 with Mike Ross

This is a picture of Mike Ross with the machine in 2008.


CPU card - what a lot of chips!	Main CPU rack

Tape rack	Disk rack

Processor backplane	CPU power supplies

Papers and other references

There is an interesting academic paper on the design of the machine;

System Sciences, 1989. Vol.I: Architecture Track, Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Hawaii International Conference on
Issue Date: 3-6 Jan 1989
On page(s): 214 - 222 vol.1
Meeting Date: 03 Jan 1989 - 06 Jan 1989
Location: Kailua-Kona, HI , USA
Print ISBN: 0-8186-1911-2
INSPEC Accession Number: 3390608
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/HICSS.1989.47161
Date of Current Version: 06 August 2002

Abstract

The CONVEX C220 and C240 supercomputers, a family of 64-bit multiprocessors tightly coupled through a shared main memory, are discussed. The structure of the C2 family and of the C1 family that preceded it is described. The product definition process and the technology selection are examined. The way in which the project was organized and staffed, the tools used, and some of the significant crisis points during the program execution are discussed

Links

http://www.nscee.edu/Publications/Newsletters/Scene_Oct92

http://www.ex-convex.org/ - site for ex convex employees.