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'Cydrome' was a computer company started in 1984 whose mission was to develop a Numeric Processor for primary customer Prime Computer. The founders included David Yen, Wei Yen, and Bob Rau (the chief architect).
The company's idea was to implement a VLIW based architecture with a custom Fortran compiler that would use trace scheduling technologies to create an efficient number cruncher. The numeric processor used a 256bit-wide instruction word with 7 fields. It had a special mode where each of the operations could be executed sequentially. It implemented register rotation to aid in software pipelining of loops.
The numeric processor was implemented in ECL running at 25 Mhz. The processor was organized as a 256bit-wide instruction word with 7 fields. It had a special mode where each of the operations could be executed sequentially. It implemented register rotation to aid in software pipelining of loops. There was an Instruction cache only, since it was felt that a data cache would be in-efficient on sparse array operations. The numeric processor also incorporated memory management and consequently employed virtual memory concepts.
The memory subsystem implemented a 64 way interleaved 4-port memory. To insure that there would be no "hot spots" within the memory system, the addresses to the memory were hashed to spread the accesses evenly across the 64 way memory system.
The project grew beyond its original definition to include a front-end general purpose processor ensemble based on the multiple 68020 processors running Unix System V. The numeric processor would run a small kernel that would allow it to receive job submissions from the Unix system.
The initial machine was dubbed the Cydra-5 and several systems were built. In 1987 the machine saw its first public appearance at the first Supercomputer Conference held in Santa Clara, CA.
The company closed after roughly 3 years of operation in 1988.
Many of the ideas in Cydrome were carried on in the Itanium architecture.
The company's idea was to implement a VLIW based architecture with a custom Fortran compiler that would use trace scheduling technologies to create an efficient number cruncher. The numeric processor used a 256bit-wide instruction word with 7 fields. It had a special mode where each of the operations could be executed sequentially. It implemented register rotation to aid in software pipelining of loops.
The numeric processor was implemented in ECL running at 25 Mhz. The processor was organized as a 256bit-wide instruction word with 7 fields. It had a special mode where each of the operations could be executed sequentially. It implemented register rotation to aid in software pipelining of loops. There was an Instruction cache only, since it was felt that a data cache would be in-efficient on sparse array operations. The numeric processor also incorporated memory management and consequently employed virtual memory concepts.
The memory subsystem implemented a 64 way interleaved 4-port memory. To insure that there would be no "hot spots" within the memory system, the addresses to the memory were hashed to spread the accesses evenly across the 64 way memory system.
The project grew beyond its original definition to include a front-end general purpose processor ensemble based on the multiple 68020 processors running Unix System V. The numeric processor would run a small kernel that would allow it to receive job submissions from the Unix system.
The initial machine was dubbed the Cydra-5 and several systems were built. In 1987 the machine saw its first public appearance at the first Supercomputer Conference held in Santa Clara, CA.
The company closed after roughly 3 years of operation in 1988.
Many of the ideas in Cydrome were carried on in the Itanium architecture.
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