Cydrome
Encyclopedia
Cydrome was a computer company started in 1984 in San Jose
, California
whose mission was to develop a numeric processor. The founders were David Yen, Wei Yen
, Ross Towle, Arun Kumar, and Bob Rau
(the chief architect). In order to improve performance in a new instruction set architecture, the Cydrome processors were based on a very long instruction word
(VLIW) containing instructions from parallel operations. Software pipelining
in a custom Fortran
compiler generated code that would run efficiently. The company closed after roughly 4 years of operation in 1988. Many of the ideas in Cydrome were carried on in the Itanium
architecture.
The company was originally named ”Axiom Systems". However another company in San Diego called "Axiom" was founded earlier. Axiom Systems called its architecture "SPARC". It sold the rights to the name (but not the architecture) to Sun Microsystems
and used the money to hire NameLab to come up with a new company name. They came up with "Cydrome" from "cyber" and "drome".
Cydrome moved from an office in San Jose to a business park in Milpitas
on President's Day 1985.
Late in its history, Cydrome received an investment from Prime Computer
s and OEMed the Cydra-5
through Prime. The system sold by Cydrome had white skins. The skins for the Prime OEM system was black. In the Summer of 1988 Prime was set to acquire Cydrome. At the last minute the board of Prime decided not to go through with the deal. That sealed the fate of Cydrome.
The numeric processor used a 256 bit-wide instruction word with seven "fields". In most cases the compiler would find instructions that could run in parallel and place them together in a single word. It also 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 inefficient 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.
It was implemented in ECL
running at 25 MHz. Major functional modules were implemented using AMCC
ECL ASICs. 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. A sample Cydra-5 is in storage at the Computer History Museum
.
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
whose mission was to develop a numeric processor. The founders were David Yen, Wei Yen
Wei Yen
Dr. Wei Yen is a software developer and entrepreneur. He has been involved with several companies, including most recently as chairman and founder of AiLive. Dr...
, Ross Towle, Arun Kumar, and Bob Rau
Bob Rau
Bantwal Ramakrishna "Bob" Rau was a computer engineer. Rau was a founder and chief architect of Cydrome, where he helped develop the Very long instruction word technology that is now standard in modern computer processors. Rau was the recipient of the 2002 Eckert–Mauchly Award.-External links:* *...
(the chief architect). In order to improve performance in a new instruction set architecture, the Cydrome processors were based on a very long instruction word
Very long instruction word
Very long instruction word or VLIW refers to a CPU architecture designed to take advantage of instruction level parallelism . A processor that executes every instruction one after the other may use processor resources inefficiently, potentially leading to poor performance...
(VLIW) containing instructions from parallel operations. Software pipelining
Software pipelining
In computer science, software pipelining is a technique used to optimize loops, in a manner that parallels hardware pipelining. Software pipelining is a type of out-of-order execution, except that the reordering is done by a compiler instead of the processor...
in a custom Fortran
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
compiler generated code that would run efficiently. The company closed after roughly 4 years of operation in 1988. Many of the ideas in Cydrome were carried on in the Itanium
Itanium
Itanium is a family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture . Intel markets the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems...
architecture.
The company was originally named ”Axiom Systems". However another company in San Diego called "Axiom" was founded earlier. Axiom Systems called its architecture "SPARC". It sold the rights to the name (but not the architecture) to Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
and used the money to hire NameLab to come up with a new company name. They came up with "Cydrome" from "cyber" and "drome".
Cydrome moved from an office in San Jose to a business park in Milpitas
Milpitas, California
Milpitas is a city in Santa Clara County, California. It is a suburb of the major city of San Jose, California. It is located with San Jose to its south and Fremont to its north, at the eastern end of State Route 237 and generally between Interstates 680 and 880 which run roughly north/south...
on President's Day 1985.
Late in its history, Cydrome received an investment from Prime Computer
Prime Computer
Prime Computer, Inc. was a Natick, Massachusetts-based producer of minicomputers from 1972 until 1992. The alternative spellings "PR1ME" and "PR1ME Computer" were used as brand names or logos by the company.-Founders:...
s and OEMed the Cydra-5
Cydra-5
The Cydra-5 departmental supercomputer is the first minisupercomputer designed by Cydrome. It was completed in 1987. At that time Cydra-5 cost from $0.5 million to $1 million, but achieved one-third to one-fifth performance of supercomputers which cost around $10 million to $20 million.The Cydra-5...
through Prime. The system sold by Cydrome had white skins. The skins for the Prime OEM system was black. In the Summer of 1988 Prime was set to acquire Cydrome. At the last minute the board of Prime decided not to go through with the deal. That sealed the fate of Cydrome.
The numeric processor used a 256 bit-wide instruction word with seven "fields". In most cases the compiler would find instructions that could run in parallel and place them together in a single word. It also had a special mode where each of the operations could be executed sequentially. It implemented register rotation to aid in software pipelining
Software pipelining
In computer science, software pipelining is a technique used to optimize loops, in a manner that parallels hardware pipelining. Software pipelining is a type of out-of-order execution, except that the reordering is done by a compiler instead of the processor...
of loops. There was an Instruction cache only, since it was felt that a data cache would be inefficient on sparse array
Sparse array
In computer science, a sparse array is an array in which most of the elements have the same value . The occurrence of zero elements in a large array is inconvenient for both computation and storage...
operations.
The numeric processor also incorporated memory management
Memory management
Memory management is the act of managing computer memory. The essential requirement of memory management is to provide ways to dynamically allocate portions of memory to programs at their request, and freeing it for reuse when no longer needed. This is critical to the computer system.Several...
and consequently employed virtual memory
Virtual memory
In computing, virtual memory is a memory management technique developed for multitasking kernels. This technique virtualizes a computer architecture's various forms of computer data storage , allowing a program to be designed as though there is only one kind of memory, "virtual" memory, which...
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.
It was implemented in ECL
Emitter coupled logic
In electronics, emitter-coupled logic , is a logic family that achieves high speed by using an overdriven BJT differential amplifier with single-ended input, whose emitter current is limited to avoid the slow saturation region of transistor operation....
running at 25 MHz. Major functional modules were implemented using AMCC
Applied Micro Circuits Corporation
Applied Micro Circuits Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company designing network and embedded Power Architecture , and server processor ARM , optical transport and storage solutions...
ECL ASICs. 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
UNIX System V
Unix System V, commonly abbreviated SysV , is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by American Telephone & Telegraph and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, termed Releases 1, 2, 3 and 4...
. 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
Cydra-5
The Cydra-5 departmental supercomputer is the first minisupercomputer designed by Cydrome. It was completed in 1987. At that time Cydra-5 cost from $0.5 million to $1 million, but achieved one-third to one-fifth performance of supercomputers which cost around $10 million to $20 million.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. A sample Cydra-5 is in storage at the Computer History Museum
Computer History Museum
The Computer History Museum is a museum established in 1996 in Mountain View, California, USA. The Museum is dedicated to preserving and presenting the stories and artifacts of the information age, and exploring the computing revolution and its impact on our lives.-History:The museum's origins...
.