Fujitsu VP
Encyclopedia
The FACOM VP is a series of vector
supercomputer
s designed, manufactured, and marketed by Fujitsu
. Announced in July 1982, the FACOM VP were the first of the three initial Japanese commercial supercomputers, followed by the Hitachi HITAC S-810
in August 1982 and the NEC SX-2 in April 1983. The FACOM VP were sold until they were replaced by the VP2000
family in 1990. Developed with funding from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry
, the FACOM VP was part of an effort designed to wrest control of the supercomputer market from the collection of small US
-based companies like Cray Research. The FACOM VP was marketed in Japan by Fujitsu, where the majority of installations were located. Amdahl
marketed the systems in the US and Siemens
in Europe. The ending of the cold war
during this period made the market for supercomputers dry up almost overnight, and the Japanese firms decided that their mass-production capabilities were better spent elsewhere.
Fujitsu had built a prototype vector co-processor known as the F230-75, which was installed attached to their own mainframe
machines in the Japanese Atomic Energy Commission
and National Aerospace Laboratory in 1977. The processor was similar in most ways to the famed Cray-1
, but did not have vector chaining capabilities and was therefore somewhat slower. Nevertheless the machines were rather inexpensive, and during the late 1970s supercomputers were seen as a source of national pride, and an effort started to commercialize the design by combining it with a scalar processor
to create an all-in-one design.
The result was the VP-100 and VP-200, announced in July 1982. These two models differed primarily in clock rates. Lower-end models were spun off as the VP-30 and VP-50. In 1986 a two-pipeline version was released as the VP-400. The next year the entire series was updated with the addition of a new vector unit that supported a multiply-and-add unit that could retire two results per clock cycle. This resulted in the "E series", VP-30E through VP-400E.
One problem with the design was the limited memory bandwidth as a result of having only one load-store unit. Even on the top-end VP-400E it could drive only 4.57 GB/s peak, limiting the maximum performance to only 0.5 GFLOPS for 64-bit
operands. US designs focused on this problem in the early 1980s, and the contemporary Cray-2
could drive about 2 GB/s per processor, with up to four processors.
Vector processor
A vector processor, or array processor, is a central processing unit that implements an instruction set containing instructions that operate on one-dimensional arrays of data called vectors. This is in contrast to a scalar processor, whose instructions operate on single data items...
supercomputer
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
s designed, manufactured, and marketed by Fujitsu
Fujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....
. Announced in July 1982, the FACOM VP were the first of the three initial Japanese commercial supercomputers, followed by the Hitachi HITAC S-810
HITAC S-810
The HITAC S-810 is a vector supercomputer developed, manufactured and marketed by Hitachi. The first models, the S-810/10 and S-810/20, were announced in August 1982, making the S-810 was the second of the first three Japanese supercomputers, following the Fujitsu VP-200, which was announced July...
in August 1982 and the NEC SX-2 in April 1983. The FACOM VP were sold until they were replaced by the VP2000
Fujitsu VP2000
The VP2000 were the second series of vector supercomputers from Fujitsu. Announced in December 1988, they replaced Fujitsu's earlier FACOM VP Model E Series...
family in 1990. Developed with funding from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry
Ministry of International Trade and Industry
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry was one of the most powerful agencies of the Government of Japan. At the height of its influence, it effectively ran much of Japanese industrial policy, funding research and directing investment...
, the FACOM VP was part of an effort designed to wrest control of the supercomputer market from the collection of small US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-based companies like Cray Research. The FACOM VP was marketed in Japan by Fujitsu, where the majority of installations were located. Amdahl
Amdahl Corporation
Amdahl Corporation is an information technology company which specializes in IBM mainframe-compatible computer products. Founded in 1970 by Dr. Gene Amdahl, a former IBM employee, it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu since 1997...
marketed the systems in the US and Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
in Europe. The ending of the cold war
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
during this period made the market for supercomputers dry up almost overnight, and the Japanese firms decided that their mass-production capabilities were better spent elsewhere.
Fujitsu had built a prototype vector co-processor known as the F230-75, which was installed attached to their own mainframe
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
machines in the Japanese Atomic Energy Commission
Japanese Atomic Energy Commission
The was established in 1956 and serves as the regulatory body for nuclear power in Japan. The Atomic Energy Basic Law contained a provision for its creation, and shortly after the law was enacted, the organization started activities, which are stated to be: assure that research and use of nuclear...
and National Aerospace Laboratory in 1977. The processor was similar in most ways to the famed Cray-1
Cray-1
The Cray-1 was a supercomputer designed, manufactured, and marketed by Cray Research. The first Cray-1 system was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976, and it went on to become one of the best known and most successful supercomputers in history...
, but did not have vector chaining capabilities and was therefore somewhat slower. Nevertheless the machines were rather inexpensive, and during the late 1970s supercomputers were seen as a source of national pride, and an effort started to commercialize the design by combining it with a scalar processor
Scalar processor
Scalar processors represent the simplest class of computer processors. A scalar processor processes one datum at a time . , a scalar processor is classified as a SISD processor .In a vector processor, by contrast, a single instruction operates simultaneously on multiple data items...
to create an all-in-one design.
The result was the VP-100 and VP-200, announced in July 1982. These two models differed primarily in clock rates. Lower-end models were spun off as the VP-30 and VP-50. In 1986 a two-pipeline version was released as the VP-400. The next year the entire series was updated with the addition of a new vector unit that supported a multiply-and-add unit that could retire two results per clock cycle. This resulted in the "E series", VP-30E through VP-400E.
One problem with the design was the limited memory bandwidth as a result of having only one load-store unit. Even on the top-end VP-400E it could drive only 4.57 GB/s peak, limiting the maximum performance to only 0.5 GFLOPS for 64-bit
64-bit
64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
operands. US designs focused on this problem in the early 1980s, and the contemporary Cray-2
Cray-2
The Cray-2 was a four-processor ECL vector supercomputer made by Cray Research starting in 1985. It was the fastest machine in the world when it was released, replacing the Cray Research X-MP designed by Steve Chen in that spot...
could drive about 2 GB/s per processor, with up to four processors.