CrayCore is a CRAY YMP-EL Emulator. Currently, CrayCore executes instructions one at a time, through a command line interface. Future plans are to slowly add features until CrayCore is fully able to run Unicos. CrayCore version .3 has been released, in two packages, a source.zip, and a win32 binary. New features include light memory support, vector support, and many more opcodes. Be sure to check OpcodesTwo.txt, included with both packages for status on which instructions are implemented, and how to use them.
CrayCore version 0.3 released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I hope the authors are aware of the licensing costs associated with Unicos… It ain’t cheap
Cool project none the less…
Oh yes, the multi-thousand per year cost of Unicos, and the additional, even more expensive compiler set is a bit… prohibitive. What I am somewhat hoping, although it is a tad bit unlikely, is that Cray would decide to do a hobbyist license, like what hobbyists have with V6 and V7 Unix.
Of course, if they don’t, or can’t do that, there were a few other operating systems, such as ChorusOS, that were ported to the YMP architecture. There is also Linux and NetBSD, although I don’t particularly want to think of what changes gcc would need, to properly use the vector registers to their full potential, or handle things like lack of cache, or virtual memory.
Isn’t the point of struggling with a very idiosyncratic design of Cray processors/OS that you get the fastest machine for all your pains.
An emulator would allow you to experience all the pain and get the slowest possible performance. What am I missing?
Perhaps it’s fun? Perhaps it makes a nice training tool if you want to learn a bit about programming a Cray but you don’t have one in the closet to use?
i heard unicos was like $30,000 plus $80,000 compiler and tools (or something like that but final cost about $110,000). rich man’s game. 😉
login to a real Y-MP EL (login.cray-cyber.org). hint: check the web page for tips or guest/guest guestguest/guest and so forth.
try some leet unicos sploits (j/k, if you want to hack, go to death row cluster).
brings back memories. in the early nineties, my college had a Y-MP EL and Kendall Square Research. i’d seen those plus Cray 1 up close and personal (National Cryptologic Museum has a Cray 1).
An emulator would allow you to experience all the pain and get the slowest possible performance. What am I missing?
you’re missing that there IS NO POINT. it’s just retro fun. most of us old timers (> age 25) used to drool over these things as kids, Cray 1, Cyber, Cray 2, server farms at No Such Agency, NASA, etc. even today, the shipping costs, power bills, and spare parts are prohibitive to running one at home. so emu’s are great fun.
Any pics of the real kind of boxes about?
(Given that the crays are fairly old, what kind of spec modern PC would be needed to emulate it at roughly full speed? (Probably relative speeds of the various subsystems is wildly different – but some ballpark description would be fascinating!)
Glad that there are real hobbyist around and that all of them are riding on the linux stationwagon…uh, bandwagon. This IS cool. Nice job dude.
I think this is a great idea and I applaud their efforts!
I remember seeing pictures of these in old Omni and Popular Science magazines that my dad would get when I was really young, I’d read about them not understanding exactly what it was I was reading, but I was captivated and thought it was so cool.
I sometimes to this day find myself hunting around online for pics and info and such about Cray and other supercomputers.
I doubt they’ll ever get a hobbyist type of license for Unicos, but this is still a really cool project imo.
oh yeah, to the guy asking about pics, there’s tons online man, google image search is a good place to start…this site has some cool pics..
http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw/jcgm-mfhcc.shtml