Encore Computer

Last updated

Encore Computer was an early pioneer in the parallel computing market, based in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Although offering several system designs beginning in 1985, they were never as well known as other companies in this field such as Pyramid Technology, Alliant, and the most similar systems Sequent and FLEX.

Contents

Encore was founded in 1983 by: Kenneth Fisher, former CEO of Prime Computer; Gordon Bell, an engineering vice president from Digital Equipment Corporation responsible for the development of the VAX; and, Henry Burkhardt III, co-founder of Data General and Kendall Square Research. [1] Their goal was to build massively parallel machines from commodity processors; their first design, the Multimax, was released in September 1985. [2] This was one of the first commercial designs to make use of bus snooping, allowing many processors to share the same memory efficiently.

History

In 1988 Encore purchased the former Systems Engineering Laboratories (SEL) from Nippon Mining. SEL, founded in 1961, built high-performance electronics systems for industrial monitoring and control purposes, and was purchased by Gould Electronics in 1980; Gould was in turn purchased by Nippon Mining in 1988.

SEL computers were used in many military flight simulators; because of US government regulations which forbid foreign companies from owning control of companies providing key components of the national defense, Nippon had to sell SEL. Nippon in essence paid Encore to buy the computer division.

Encore then turned, as did most of the market, to RISC-based CPUs. They chose the Motorola 88000, and released the Encore-91 in late 1991, supporting two (9102) or four (9104) CPUs running at 25 MHz. A bottom-up redesign for the new processor led to the Infinity 90 series, starting with the Infinity 90/ES in 1994. The ES supported between 2 and 2,045 Motorola 88110 CPUs running at 50 MHz. Several newer machines in the Infinity 90 series were released, but Encore again found its CPU supplier changing direction as Motorola dropped development of the 88000 series to concentrate on the PowerPC.

Trying again, this time in the high-performance real-time market, Encore turned to the Alpha 21064 to create the Infinity R/T Model 300, which first shipped in late 1994. By this point the massively parallel market was being encroached on by machines made up of large numbers of commodity machines, and Encore released a single-CPU workstation running OSF/1, the Series 90 RT 3000. It was intended to be used either standalone or as a node in a massively parallel machine.

Encore also worked on a modified RISC design known as the RSX. This was intended to operate in two modes, one as a normal CPU node for clusters, and in a CONCEPT/32 compatibility mode, which emulated earlier custom hardware from the real-time side of the company. Encore continues to offer upgrade paths for their earlier systems, some of which date back to 1975.

Parts of the computing side of the company were sold off over the years, with the last major spin-off being their Storage Products Group, sold to Sun Microsystems in 1997. [3]

Acquisitions

Gores Technology Group

In 1998 Gores Technology Group acquired Encore, and renamed it "Encore Real-Time Computing." This left the company consisting primarily of their real-time group and the original SEL core, returning to this business niche.

Compro Computer Services

In 2002, Compro Computer Services acquired Encore Real-Time Computing, although most of the non-US offices still operate under the Encore name. Compro continues its support of SelBUS-based SEL, Gould, and Encore Real-Time Computing products, and offers an upgrade path with the Legacy Computer Replacement System (LCRS) hardware simulator.

A sample Encore Multimax system donated from the Naval Postgraduate School is in storage at the Computer History Museum. [4]

Specifications

The original Multimax could support from one to ten pairs of 10 MHz National Semiconductor NS32032 processors, a 32-bit CISC design similar to that of the Motorola 68000. [5] [6] Subsequent Multimax models supported NS32332 and NS32532 processors at higher clock rates. The last National-based Multimax was the model 500 offered in 1989. All models ran the user's choice of BSD or System V Unix or Mach. [7] : 106  All three operating systems were modified for parallel computing. However, soon after the 500's release, National stopped the development of the NS32032 design.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motorola 68000</span> Microprocessor

The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PowerPC</span> RISC instruction set architecture by AIM alliance

PowerPC is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. PowerPC, as an evolving instruction set, has been named Power ISA since 2006, while the old name lives on as a trademark for some implementations of Power Architecture–based processors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reduced instruction set computer</span> Processor executing one instruction in minimal clock cycles

In computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set computer (CISC), a RISC computer might require more instructions in order to accomplish a task because the individual instructions are written in simpler code. The goal is to offset the need to process more instructions by increasing the speed of each instruction, in particular by implementing an instruction pipeline, which may be simpler to achieve given simpler instructions.

The NS32000, sometimes known as the 32k, is a series of microprocessors produced by National Semiconductor. The first member of the family came to market in 1982, briefly known as the 16032 before becoming the 32016. It was the first general-purpose microprocessor on the market that used 32-bit data throughout: the Motorola 68000 used 32-bit data but had a 16-bit ALU and thus took twice as long perform many operations. However, the 32016 contained many bugs and often could not be run at its rated speed. These problems, and the presence of the otherwise similar 68000 which had been available since 1980, led to little use in the market.

The 88000 is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Motorola during the 1980s. The MC88100 arrived on the market in 1988, some two years after the competing SPARC and MIPS. Due to the late start and extensive delays releasing the second-generation MC88110, the m88k achieved very limited success outside of the MVME platform and embedded controller environments. When Motorola joined the AIM alliance in 1991 to develop the PowerPC, further development of the 88000 ended.

The Motorola 68000 series is a family of 32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessors. During the 1980s and early 1990s, they were popular in personal computers and workstations and were the primary competitors of Intel's x86 microprocessors. They were best known as the processors used in the early Apple Macintosh, the Sharp X68000, the Commodore Amiga, the Sinclair QL, the Atari ST and Falcon, the Atari Jaguar, the Sega Genesis, the Philips CD-i, the Capcom System I (Arcade), the AT&T UNIX PC, the Tandy Model 16/16B/6000, the Sun Microsystems Sun-1, Sun-2 and Sun-3, the NeXT Computer, NeXTcube, NeXTstation, and NeXTcube Turbo, early Silicon Graphics IRIS workstations, computers from MASSCOMP, the Texas Instruments TI-89/TI-92 calculators, the Palm Pilot, the Control Data Corporation CDCNET Device Interface, and the Space Shuttle. Although no modern desktop computers are based on processors in the 680x0 series, derivative processors are still widely used in embedded systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workstation</span> High-end single-user computer

A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term workstation has been used loosely to refer to everything from a mainframe computer terminal to a PC connected to a network, but the most common form refers to the class of hardware offered by several current and defunct companies such as Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, Apollo Computer, DEC, HP, NeXT, and IBM which powered the 3D computer graphics revolution of the late 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apollo Computer</span> Manufacturer of Apollo/Domain workstations in the 1980s

Apollo Computer Inc., founded in 1980 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, by William Poduska and others, developed and produced Apollo/Domain workstations in the 1980s. Along with Symbolics and Sun Microsystems, Apollo was one of the first vendors of graphical workstations in the 1980s. Like computer companies at the time and unlike manufacturers of IBM PC compatibles, Apollo produced much of its own hardware and software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dolphin Interconnect Solutions</span> Manufacturer of high speed data communication systems

Dolphin Interconnect Solutions is a privately held manufacturer of high-speed data communication systems headquartered in Oslo, Norway and Woodsville, New Hampshire, USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoebe (computer)</span> Proposed computer by Acorn, cancelled 1998

The Phoebe 2100 was to be Acorn Computers' successor to the RiscPC, slated for release in late 1998. However, in September 1998, Acorn cancelled the project as part of a restructuring of the company.

Aviion was a series of computers from Data General that were the company's main product from the late 1980s until the company's server products were discontinued in 2001. Earlier Aviion models used the Motorola 88000 CPU, but later models moved to an all-Intel solution when Motorola stopped work on the 88000 in the early 1990s. Some versions of these later Intel-based machines ran Windows NT, while higher-end machines ran the company's flavor of Unix, DG/UX.

Pyramid Technology Corporation was a computer company that produced a number of RISC-based minicomputers at the upper end of the performance range. It was based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DEC PRISM</span> RISC instruction set architecture

PRISM was a 32-bit RISC instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the outcome of a number of DEC research projects from the 1982–1985 time-frame, and the project was subject to continually changing requirements and planned uses that delayed its introduction. This process eventually decided to use the design for a new line of Unix workstations. The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) of the microPrism version had completed design in April 1988 and samples were fabricated, but the design of other components like the floating point unit (FPU) and memory management unit (MMU) were still not complete in the summer when DEC management decided to cancel the project in favor of MIPS-based systems. An operating system codenamed MICA was developed for the PRISM architecture, which would have served as a replacement for both VAX/VMS and ULTRIX on PRISM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RISC iX</span> Discontinued Unix operating system

RISC iX is a discontinued Unix operating system designed to run on a series of workstations based on the Acorn Archimedes microcomputer. Heavily based on 4.3BSD, it was initially completed in 1988, a year after Arthur but before RISC OS. It was introduced in the ARM2-based R140 workstation in 1989, followed up by the ARM3-based R200-series workstations in 1990.

The Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) was defined by an industry consortium in the early 1990s to be the next generation commodity computing platform, the successor to personal computers based on Intel's 32-bit instruction set architecture. The effort found little support in the market and dissolved due to infighting within the group and a lack of sales.

Berkeley RISC is one of two seminal research projects into reduced instruction set computer (RISC) based microprocessor design taking place under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency VLSI Project. RISC was led by David Patterson at the University of California, Berkeley between 1980 and 1984. The other project took place a short distance away at Stanford University under their MIPS effort starting in 1981 and running until 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tadpole Computer</span>

Tadpole Computer was a manufacturer of rugged, military specification, UNIX workstations, thin client laptops and lightweight servers.

Systems Engineering Laboratories was a manufacturer of minicomputers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was one of the first 32-bit realtime computer system manufacturers. Realtime computers are used for process control and monitoring.

The VAX 9000 is a discontinued family of mainframes developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) using custom ECL-based processors implementing the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA). Equipped with optional vector processors, they were marketed into the supercomputer space as well. As with other VAX systems, they were sold with either the VMS or Ultrix operating systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motorola 88110</span> Microprocessor developed by Motorola

The MC88110 was a microprocessor developed by Motorola that implemented the 88000 instruction set architecture (ISA). The MC88110 was a second-generation implementation of the 88000 ISA, succeeding the MC88100. It was designed for use in personal computers and workstations.

References

  1. ↑ "DEC VP Resigns to Join Ken Fisher's Next Venture". Computerworld . 1983-07-25. p. 6. Retrieved 2016-02-13.
  2. ↑ Mitch Betts (1985-09-16). "Encore Computer ushers in Multimax supermini line". Computerworld . p. 14. Retrieved 2016-02-13.
  3. ↑ "Encore to Sell Data Storage Unit to Sun Microsystems" (Press release). NY Times. 1997-05-29. Retrieved 2016-01-23.
  4. ↑ "Multimax mini supercomputer". Collections. Computer History Museum.
  5. ↑ Hydra Architecture Summary Revision 1.0. May 30, 1984.
  6. ↑ Hydrabus CPU Specification Revision 2.0. Hydra Computer Systems, Inc. May 1984
  7. ↑ Boykin, Joseph; Langerman, Alan (1989). "The Parallelization of Mach/4.3BSD: Design Philosophy and Performance Analysis". Workshop on Experiences with Distributed and Multiprocessor Systems. Usenix Association: 105–126. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.