CDC Cyber - Cyber 200 Series

Cyber 200 Series

In 1974 CDC introduced the STAR architecture. The STAR was an entirely new 64-bit design with virtual memory and vector processing instructions added for high performance on a certain class of math tasks. The STAR's vector pipeline was a memory to memory pipe, which supported vector lengths of up to 65,536 elements. Unfortunately, the latencies of the vector pipeline were very long, so peak speed was approached only when very long vectors were used. The scalar processor was relatively slow in comparison to the CDC 7600. As such, the original STAR proved to be a great disappointment when it was released (see Amdahl's Law). Best estimates claim that three STAR-100 systems were delivered. However many of its problems seemed solvable.

In the late 1970s, CDC addressed some of these issues with the Cyber 203. The new name kept with their new branding, and perhaps to distance itself from the STAR's failure. The Cyber 203 contained redesigned scalar processing and loosely coupled I/O design, but retained the STAR's vector pipeline. Best estimates claim that two Cyber 203s were delivered and/or upgraded from STAR-100s.

In 1980, the successor to the Cyber 203, the Cyber 205 was announced. The UK Meteorological Office at Bracknell, England was the first customer and they received their Cyber 205 in 1981. The Cyber 205 replaced the STAR vector pipeline with redesigned vector pipelines: both scalar and vector units utilized ECL gate array ICs and were cooled with Freon. Cyber 205 systems were available with two or four vector pipelines, with the four-pipe version theoretically delivering 400 64-bit MFLOPs and 800 32-bit MFLOPs. These speeds were rarely seen in practice other than by handcrafted assembly language. The ECL gate array ICs contained 168 logic gates each, with the clock tree networks being tuned by hand-crafted coax length adjustment. It is worth noting that the instruction set would be considered V-CISC (very complex instruction set) among modern processors. Many specialized operations facilitated hardware searches, matrix mathematics, and special instructions that would enable decryption. The original Cyber 205 was renamed to Cyber 205 Series 400 in 1983 when the Cyber 205 Series 600 was introduced. The Series 600 differed in memory technology and packaging but was otherwise the same. The Cyber 205 architecture evolved into the ETA10 as the design team spun off into ETA Systems in September 1983. A single four-pipe Cyber 205 was installed. All other sites appear to be two-pipe installations with final count to be determined.

Also there was a Cyber 250 which was scheduled for release in 1987 priced at $20 million; it was later renamed the ETA30 after ETA Systems was absorbed back into CDC.