Connection Machine 2 - Capitol
Thinking Machines
In use: September 1, 1988 - April 1, 1993
Experimental use
Peak teraflops: 0.01
Processors: 8,192
Clock Speed: 0.01GHz
Memory (terabytes): 0.00TB
Successor: Connection Machine 5
In 1988, NCAR and the University of Colorado formed the Center for Applied Parallel Processing (CAPP). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and several private companies became CAPP affiliates.
CAPP's aim was to develop an infrastructure for the support of parallel computation — for example, tools for problem decomposition and expression, parallel algorithms, and high-performance networking and graphics.
NCAR's Scientific Computing Division (SCD) became the operational facility for CAPP, and under its auspices, took delivery of an 8,192-processor Connection Machine system (model CM-2) in August 1988. The CM-2, nicknamed "Capitol," was manufactured by Thinking Machines Corporation.
The CM-2 performed thousands of computations simultaneously (in parallel) and was used extensively by researchers working on massively parallel processing at NCAR and NOAA, as well as by the university community.
SCD set up a parallel geodynamics project designed to provide information on the suitability of the CM-2's single-instruction, multiple data (SIMD) architecture for modeling atmospheric science problems.
The CM-2 was replaced in April 1993 by the CM-5.