|
|
|
|
In 1990 or 1991 I made the first contact with vector computers during an introductory lecture at the Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz. In this lecture the Fujitsu VP-100 system installed at the university Kaiserslautern was introduced and I realized that programming vector processors is a real challenge.
|
|
|
One or two years later, my school friend Ingo Kloeckl an I decided to visit the Kaiserslautern VP-100 during our holidays and learn as much as we can about this machine. The following four pictures show the VP-100 itself:
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
| The CPU of the vector machine is shown here: | |
|
|
|
|
It consists of a quite small card cage containing the CPU boards. Each board holds lots of integrated circuits with large cooling towers, since the machine is cooled by forced air only.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
| One of the most interesting features of the machine located in Kaiserslautern was the connection to the front end computer system, a general purpose Siemens Mainframe running BS-2000 (a very :-) strange operating system). The front end machine and the vector processor share a dual access (not just dual port!) disk drive, shown above: | |
| The two access mechanisms can be seen on the left and on the right of the disk cabinet, while the spindle motor is located in the upper left. | |
 |
 |
| The next picture shows the front end system - on the left my friend Ingo can be seen, on the right is Dr. Pohl from the University of Kaiserslautern. |  |
