Editing Floating Point Systems (section)

== History==
The original goal of the company was to supply economical, but high-performance, [[floating-point]] [[coprocessor]]s for [[minicomputer]]s.  In 1976, the ''[[FPS AP-120B|AP-120B]]'' [[vector processor|array processor]] was produced.  This was soon followed by a unit for larger systems and [[IBM]] mainframes, the [[FPS AP-190]]. In 1981, the follow-on ''FPS-164'' was produced, followed by the FPS-264, which had the same architecture.  This was five times faster, using [[Emitter-coupled logic|ECL]] instead of [[Transistor-transistor logic|TTL]] chips.

These processors were widely used as attached processors for scientific applications in [[reflection seismology]], [[physical chemistry]], [[NSA]] [[cryptology]] and other disciplines requiring large numbers of computations. Attached array processors were usually used in facilities where larger [[supercomputer]]s were either not needed or not affordable. Hundreds if not thousands of FPS boxes were delivered and highly regarded. FPS's primary competition up to this time was IBM (3838 array processor) and CSP Inc.

[[Cornell University]], led by physicist [[Kenneth G. Wilson]], made a supercomputer proposal to NSF with IBM to produce a processor array of FPS boxes attached to an IBM mainframe with the name ''lCAP''.

=== Parallel processing ===
In 1986, the ''T-Series'' [[Multiple instruction, multiple data#Hypercube interconnection network|hypercube]] computers using [[INMOS]] [[transputer]]s and [[Weitek]] [[floating-point]] processors was introduced. The T stood for "[[Tesseract]]". Unfortunately, parallel processing was still in its infancy and the software tools and libraries for the T-Series did not facilitate customers' parallel programming.  I/O was also difficult, so the T-Series was discontinued, a mistake costing tens of millions of dollars that was nearly fatal to FPS. A few dozen T-series were delivered.

=== Celerity acquisition; acquisition by Cray ===
In 1988, FPS acquired the assets of [[Celerity Computing]] of [[San Diego, California]], renaming itself as '''FPS Computing'''. Celerity's product lines were further developed by FPS, the [[Celerity 6000]] [[minisupercomputer]] being developed into the ''FPS Model 500'' series.

FPS was acquired by [[Cray]] in 1991 for $3.25 million, and their products became the ''[[Cray S-MP|S-MP]]'' and ''APP'' product lines of [[Cray Research]].<ref name="obit">{{cite news|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/11/post_49.html|last=Tobias|first=Lori|author2=Mike Rogoway |author3=Richard Read |title=Norm Winningstad, high-tech pioneer and philanthropist in Oregon, dies at 85|date=November 24, 2010|work=[[The Oregonian]]|access-date=1 December 2010}}</ref>

The S-MP was a [[SPARC]]-based [[multiprocessor]] server (based on the Model 500); the MCP a matrix co-processor array based on eighty-four [[Intel i860]] processors. After Cray purchased FPS, it changed the group's direction by making them ''Cray Research Superservers, Inc.'', later becoming the '''Cray Business Systems Division''' (Cray BSD). The MCP was renamed the [[Cray APP]]. The S-MP architecture was not developed further. Instead, it was replaced by the ''[[Cray CS6400|Cray Superserver 6400]]'', (CS6400), which was derived indirectly from a collaboration between [[Sun Microsystems]] and [[Xerox PARC]].

=== Acquisition by SGI and Sun ===
[[Silicon Graphics]] acquired Cray Research in 1996, and shortly afterward the Cray BSD business unit along with the CS6400 product line was sold to Sun Microsystems for an undisclosed amount (acknowledged later by a Sun executive to be "significantly less than $100 million").<ref>{{cite press release
  |title= Sun Microsystems announces intent to purchase Cray Business Systems Division
  |publisher= Sun Microsystems
  |date= May 17, 1996
  |url= http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sun+Microsystems+Announces+Intent+to+Purchase+Cray+Business+Systems...-a018293601
  |access-date= March 20, 2011
  |archive-date= October 23, 2012
  |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121023113441/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sun+Microsystems+Announces+Intent+to+Purchase+Cray+Business+Systems...-a018293601
  |url-status= dead
  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news
 | author1 = Lisa DiCarlo 
 | title = Sun's Purchase Of Cray's Unix Server Business
 | url = https://www.forbes.com/2002/05/06/0506sun.html#67fc068a6a5e
 | work = [[Forbes]]
 | date = 2002-05-06
 | access-date = 2019-01-24
}}</ref> Sun was then able to bring to market the follow-on to the CS6400 which Cray BSD was developing at the time, codenamed ''Starfire'', launching it as the [[Sun Enterprise 10000|Ultra Enterprise 10000]] [[multiprocessor]] server.  This system was followed by the [[Sun Fire 15K]] and Sun Fire 25K. These systems allowed Sun to become a first tier vendor in the large server market. In January 2010, [[Sun acquisition by Oracle|Sun was acquired by Oracle Corporation]].