Editing Connection Machine

{{Short description|Supercomputer}}
{{More footnotes|date=April 2015}}
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{{Infobox supercomputer
| name         = Connection Machine
| image        = File:Connection Machine CM-2 and DataVault at Computer Museum of America.webp
| caption      = A Connection Machine CM-2 (1987) and accompanying [[DataVault]] on display at the [[Mimms Museum of Technology and Art]] in Roswell, Georgia. The CM-2 used the same casing as the CM-1.
| manufacturer = [[Thinking Machines Corporation]]
| designer     =
| release date = <ul><li>1986 (CM-1)</li><li>1987 (CM-2)</li><li>1991 (CM-5)</li></ul>
| units sold   = At least 70<ref name="SNMST">{{cite web |title=Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology, Parallelldator|url=https://digitaltmuseum.se/021027765253/parallelldator|access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Connection Machines CM-1 and CM-2 |url=https://www.tamikothiel.com/cm/ |website=tamikothiel.com |access-date=2024-10-24}}</ref>
| price        = 
| dimensions   = ≈ 6 feet cubed (CM-1 and CM-2)
| weight       = 575.0 kg (CM-2)<ref name="SNMST"></ref>
| power        =
| voltage      =
| front-end    =
| os           =
| cpu          = Up to 65,536 1-bit processors (CM-1 and CM-2)
| frequency    =
| memory       = <ul><li>512 [[Megabytes]] (CM-2)</li><li>10 [[Gigabytes]] ([[FROSTBURG]] CM-5)</li></ul>
| storage      = <ul><li>Up to 80 [[Gigabytes]] with eight [[DataVault]]s (CM-1 and CM-2)</li><li>≈ 2 [[Terabytes]] ([[FROSTBURG]] CM-5)</li></ul>
| mips         =
| flops        = <ul><li>2.5 GigaFLOPS (CM-2)</li><li>65.5 GigaFLOPS ([[FROSTBURG]] CM-5)</li></ul>
}}
The '''Connection Machine''' ('''CM''') is a member of a series of [[massively parallel]] [[supercomputer]]s sold by [[Thinking Machines Corporation]]. The idea for the Connection Machine grew out of doctoral research on alternatives to the traditional [[von Neumann architecture]] of computers by [[Danny Hillis]] at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) in the early 1980s. Starting with CM-1, the machines were intended originally for applications in [[artificial intelligence]] (AI) and symbolic processing, but later versions found greater success in the field of [[computational science]].

==Origin of idea==
[[Danny Hillis]] and [[Sheryl Handler]] founded [[Thinking Machines Corporation]] (TMC) in [[Waltham, Massachusetts]], in 1983, moving in 1984 to Cambridge, MA.  At TMC, Hillis assembled a team to develop what would become the CM-1 Connection Machine, a design for a massively parallel [[Hypercube internetwork topology|hypercube]]-based arrangement of thousands of [[microprocessor]]s, springing from his PhD thesis work at MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (1985).<ref name="WDHmit86">{{cite book |author-first=W. Daniel |author-last=Hillis |date=1986 |title=The Connection Machine |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |isbn=0262081571 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/connectionmachin00hill }}</ref> The dissertation won the ACM Distinguished Dissertation prize in 1985,<ref>{{cite web |title=William Daniel Hillis - Award Winner |url=http://awards.acm.org/award_winners/hillis_4558874.cfm#146 |website=ACM Awards |access-date=2015-04-30}}</ref> and was presented as a monograph that overviewed the philosophy, architecture, and software for the first Connection Machine, including information on its data routing between [[central processing unit]] (CPU) nodes, its memory handling, and the programming language [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]] applied in the parallel machine.<ref name="WDHmit86"/><ref name="KahleWDH89">{{cite book |first1 = Brewster |last1 = Kahle | first2 = W. Daniel | last2 = Hillis | year = 1989 | title=The Connection Machine Model CM-1 Architecture |type=Technical report |location = Cambridge, MA |publisher = Thinking Machines Corp. | page = 7 pp | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PCq7uAAACAAJ | access-date = 2015-04-25}}</ref> Very early concepts contemplated just over a million processors, each connected in a 20-dimensional hypercube,<ref name=hillis1989>{{cite journal |last1=Hillis |first1=W. Daniel |title=Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine |journal=Physics Today |date=1989a |volume=42 |issue=2 |page=78 |doi=10.1063/1.881196 |bibcode=1989PhT....42b..78H |url=https://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-and-connection-machine/ |access-date=30 June 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> which was later scaled down.

==Designs==
{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible"
! colspan="15" |Thinking Machines '''Connection Machine models'''
|-
! rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="5" |
!1984
!1985
!1986
!1987
!1988
!1989
!1990
! colspan="3" |1991
!1992
!1993
!1994
|-
! colspan="8" |Custom architecture
! rowspan="4" style="width:3px"; |
! colspan="4" | RISC-based ([[SPARC]])
|-
|Entry
| colspan="4" {{N/a}}
| colspan="4" |CM-2a
| colspan="4" {{N/a}}
|-
|Mainstream
| {{N/a}}
| colspan="2" |CM-1
| colspan="3" |CM-2
| colspan="2" {{N/a}}
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" |CM-5
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" |CM-5E
|-
|Hi-end
| colspan="4" {{N/a}}
| colspan="4" |CM-200
|-
! colspan="15" | expansions
|-
|Storage
!
| colspan="3" {{N/a}}
| colspan="7" |[[DataVault]]
| colspan="3" {{N/a}}
|}
[[File:Thinking machines cm2.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Thinking Machines Corporation|Thinking Machines]] CM-2 at the [[Computer History Museum]] in Mountain View, California. One of the face plates has been partly removed to show the circuit boards inside.]]
Each CM-1 microprocessor has its own 4&nbsp;[[kilobit]]s of [[random-access memory]] (RAM), and the [[Hypercube internetwork topology|hypercube]]-based array of them was designed to perform the same operation on multiple data points simultaneously, i.e., to execute tasks in single instruction, multiple data ([[Single instruction, multiple data|SIMD]]) fashion. The CM-1, depending on the configuration, has as many as 65,536 individual processors, each extremely simple, processing [[1-bit architecture|one bit]] at a time. CM-1 and its successor ''CM-2'' take the form of a [[cube]] 1.5&nbsp;meters on a side, divided equally into eight smaller cubes. Each subcube contains 16 [[printed circuit board]]s and a main processor called a sequencer. Each circuit board contains 32 chips. Each chip contains a [[Router (computing)|router]], 16 processors, and 16 RAMs. The CM-1 as a whole has a 12-dimensional [[hypercube]]-based [[routing]] network (connecting the 2<sup>12</sup> chips), a main RAM, and an [[Channel I/O|input-output processor (a channel controller)]]. Each router contains five buffers to store the data being transmitted when a clear channel is not available. The engineers had originally calculated that seven buffers per chip would be needed, but this made the chip slightly too large to build. [[Nobel Prize]]-winning physicist [[Richard Feynman]] had previously calculated that five buffers would be enough, using a differential equation involving the average number of 1 bits in an address. They resubmitted the design of the chip with only five buffers, and when they put the machine together, it worked fine. Each chip is connected to a switching device called a nexus. The CM-1 uses [[Logarithm#Feynman's algorithm|Feynman's algorithm]] for computing logarithms that he had developed at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] for the [[Manhattan Project]]. It is well suited to the CM-1, using as it did, only shifting and adding, with a small table shared by all the processors. Feynman also discovered that the CM-1 would compute the Feynman diagrams for [[quantum chromodynamics]] (QCD) calculations faster than an expensive special-purpose machine developed at Caltech.<ref>{{cite journal |author-last=Hillis |author-first=W. Daniel |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0504.html?printable=1 |title=Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine |journal=[[Physics Today]] |volume=42 |issue=2 |publisher=Institute of Physics |date=1989b |pages=78–83 |doi=10.1063/1.881196 |bibcode=1989PhT....42b..78H |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090728072503/http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0504.html?printable=1 |archive-date=28 July 2009 |df=dmy-all |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hillis|1989a}} - Text of Daniel Hillis' Physics Today article on Feynman and the Connection machine; also a video of Hillis *How I met Feynman *Feynman's last days.</ref>

To improve its commercial viability, TMC launched the CM-2 in 1987, adding [[Weitek]] 3132 [[floating-point]] numeric [[coprocessor]]s and more RAM to the system. Thirty-two of the original one-bit processors shared each numeric processor. The CM-2 can be configured with up to 512&nbsp;MB of RAM, and a redundant array of independent disks ([[RAID]]) [[hard disk]] system, called a [[DataVault]], of up to 25&nbsp;GB. Two later variants of the CM-2 were also produced, the smaller ''CM-2a'' with either 4096 or 8192 single-bit processors, and the faster ''CM-200''.

[[File:Frostburg (CM-5) - National Cryptologic Museum - DSC07914.JPG|thumbnail|200px|right|The light panels of [[FROSTBURG]], a CM-5, on display at the [[National Cryptologic Museum]]. The panels were used to check the usage of the processing nodes, and to run diagnostics.]]

Due to its origins in AI research, the software for the CM-1/2/200 single-bit processor was influenced by the [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]] programming language and a version of [[Common Lisp]], [[*Lisp]] (spoken: ''Star-Lisp''), was implemented on the CM-1. Other early languages included [[Karl Sims]]' IK and Cliff Lasser's URDU. Much system utility software for the CM-1/2 was written in *Lisp. Many applications for the CM-2, however, were written in [[C*]], a data-parallel superset of [[ANSI C]].

With the ''CM-5'', announced in 1991, TMC switched from the CM-2's hypercubic architecture of simple processors to a new and different multiple instruction, multiple data ([[Multiple instruction, multiple data|MIMD]]) architecture based on a [[fat tree]] network of [[reduced instruction set computing]] (RISC) [[SPARC]] processors. To make programming easier, it was made to simulate a [[Single instruction, multiple data|SIMD]] design. The later ''CM-5E'' replaces the SPARC processors with faster SuperSPARCs. A CM-5 was the fastest computer in the world in 1993 according to the [[TOP500]] list, running 1024 cores with Rpeak of 131.0&nbsp;G[[FLOPS]], and for several years many of the top 10 fastest computers were CM-5s.<ref>{{cite web |title=November 1993 |url=http://www.top500.org/lists/1993/11/ |website=www.top500.org |access-date=2015-01-16}}</ref>

==Visual design==
[[File:Thinking Machines CM-5 LED pattern animation.gif|thumb|upright|The CM-5 LED panels could show randomly generated moving patterns that served purely as eye candy, as seen in ''[[Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park]]''.]]

Connection Machines were noted for their striking visual design.  The CM-1 and CM-2 design teams were led by [[Tamiko Thiel]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thiel |first=Tamiko |date=1994 |title=The Design of the Connection Machine |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1511650 |journal=Design Issues |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=5–18 |doi=10.2307/1511650 |jstor=1511650 |issn=0747-9360|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The physical form of the CM-1, CM-2, and CM-200 chassis was a cube-of-cubes, referencing the machine's internal 12-dimensional [[hypercube]] network, with the red [[light-emitting diode]]s (LEDs), by default indicating the processor status, visible through the doors of each cube.

By default, when a processor is executing an instruction, its LED is on.  In a SIMD program, the goal is to have as many processors as possible working the program at the same time – indicated by having all LEDs being steady on. Those unfamiliar with the use of the LEDs wanted to see the LEDs blink – or even spell out messages to visitors.  The result is that finished programs often have superfluous operations to blink the LEDs.

The CM-5, in plan view, had a staircase-like shape, and also had large panels of red blinking LEDs. Prominent sculptor-architect [[Maya Lin]] contributed to the CM-5 design.<ref name="IT2014">{{cite web |title=Bloodless Beige Boxes: The Story of an Artist and a Thinking Machine |url=https://www.ithistory.org/blog/bloodless-beige-boxes-story-artist-and-thinking-machine |publisher=IT History Society |access-date=2015-01-16 |date=2014-09-02}}</ref>

==Surviving examples==
===Permanent exhibits===
* The very first CM-1 is on permanent display in the [[Computer History Museum]], Mountain View, California, which also has two other CM-1s and CM-5.<ref>{{cite web |title=Computer History Museum, Catalog Search Connection Machine supercomputer|url=https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=connection+machine+supercomputer|access-date=2019-08-16}}</ref>
* There is a decommissioned CM-1 or CM-2 on display in the main building of the [[Karlsruhe Institute of Technology]] computer science department. Students have converted it into a [[Bluetooth]]-controlled LED matrix display which can be used to play games or display art.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Connection Machine LED matrix - Technology for Pervasive Computing|url=https://teco.kit.edu/cm/dev/|access-date=2025-02-15}}</ref>
* A CM-2 with flashing red LED arrays and its accompanying [[DataVault]] storage unit are on permanent display at the [[Mimms Museum of Technology and Art]] in Roswell, Georgia.<ref>{{cite web |title=Computer Museum of America|url=https://computermuseumofamerica.org/|access-date=2019-08-16}}</ref>
* There is a CM-200 on permanent display at [[École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne]] in Switzerland, part of the exhibition space of [[Musée Bolo]].<ref>{{cite web|title=File:Thinking Machines CM200-IMG 7294 (bright).jpg|quote=Thinking Machines Connection Machine CM-200 supercomputer. On display at the Musée Bolo, EPFL, Lausanne.|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thinking_Machines_CM200-IMG_7294_(bright).jpg}}</ref>

===Past exhibits, Museum collections===
* The [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York City displayed a CM-2 in 2018. They continue to house the machine in their collection.<ref>{{cite web |title=Museum of Modern Art, CM-2 Supercomputer|url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/200389|access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref>
* A CM-2 is in the collection of the [[Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology]] (Tekniska Museet) in Stockholm, Sweden.<ref name="SNMST"/>
* Several parts of a CM-1 are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution [[National Museum of American History]], though it may not be a complete example.<ref>{{cite web| title=National Museum of American History - CM-1 Rack|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_334672|access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=National Museum of American History - Search Collections|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search?edan_q=1995.0064|access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref>
* The [[Living Computers: Museum + Labs]] in Seattle displayed a CM-2 with flashing LEDs prior to its closing in 2020.<ref>{{cite web| title=Tamiko Thiel: The Connection Machine CM-1/CM-2, Artificial intelligence parallel supercomputer design|url=http://www.tamikothiel.com/cm/|access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref>{{Better source|date=October 2024}} It is possible this machine is now in private hands, though it is not listed among the objects auctioned by Christie's.<ref>{{cite web| title=Pushing Boundaries: Ingenuity from the Paul G. Allen Collection|url=https://www.christies.com/en/auction/pushing-boundaries-ingenuity-from-the-paul-g-allen-collection-30730/browse-lots|access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref>

===Private collections===
* As of 2007,<!-- website is still online as of 2024, but not updated since 2007 --> a preserved CM-2a was owned by the Corestore, a type of online-only museum.<ref>{{cite web|title=Corestore collection: Connection Machine CM-2a|url=https://www.corestore.org/cm2a.htm|access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref>

==References in popular culture==
A CM-5 was featured in the film ''[[Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park]]'' in the [[control room]] for the [[island]] (instead of a [[Cray X-MP]] [[supercomputer]] as in the novel). Two banks, one bank of 4 Units and a single off to the right of the set could be seen in the control room.<ref>[http://www.moviequotedb.com/movies/jurassic-park/quote_12178.html Movie Quotes Database]</ref>

The computer mainframes in ''[[Fallout 3]]'' were inspired heavily by the CM-5. <ref>[https://linustechtips.com/main/uploads/monthly_12_2015/post-287746-0-32443500-1450612438.jpg Linus Tech Tips]</ref>

''[[Cyberpunk 2077]]'' features numerous CM-1/CM-2 style units in various portions of the game.

The b-side to [[Clock DVA]]'s 1989 single "The Hacker" is titled "The Connection Machine" in reference to the CM-1.

==See also==
* [[Blinkenlights]]
* [[Brewster Kahle]] – lead engineer on the Connection Machine projects
* [[Danny Hillis]] – inventor of the Connection Machine
* [[David E. Shaw]] – creator of NON-VON machine, which preceded the Connection machine slightly
* [[FROSTBURG]] – a CM-5 used by the [[National Security Agency|NSA]]
* [[Goodyear MPP]]
* [[ICL DAP]]
* [[MasPar]]
* [[Parallel computing]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* Hillis, D. 1982 "New Computer Architectures and Their Relationship to Physics or Why CS is No Good", Int J. Theoretical Physics 21 (3/4) 255-262.
* Lewis W. Tucker, [[George G. Robertson]], "Architecture and Applications of the Connection Machine," Computer, vol. 21, no. 8,  pp.&nbsp;26–38, August, 1988.
*  Arthur Trew and Greg Wilson (eds.) (1991). ''Past, Present, Parallel: A Survey of Available Parallel Computing Systems''. New York: Springer-Verlag. {{ISBN|0-387-19664-1}}
* [[Charles E. Leiserson]], Zahi S. Abuhamdeh, David C. Douglas, Carl R. Feynman, Mahesh N. Ganmukhi, Jeffrey V. Hill, W. Daniel Hillis, Bradley C. Kuszmaul, Margaret A. St. Pierre, David S. Wells, Monica C. Wong, Shaw-Wen Yang, and Robert Zak.  "The Network Architecture of the Connection Machine CM-5".  Proceedings of the fourth annual ACM Symposium on Parallel Algorithms and Architectures.  1992.
* W. Daniel Hillis and Lewis W. Tucker. ''The CM-5 Connection Machine: A Scalable Supercomputer''. In [[Communications of the ACM]], Vol. 36, No. 11 (November 1993).
{{refend}}

==External links==
*[https://people.csail.mit.edu/bradley/cm5/ Gallery of CM-5 images]
*[https://people.csail.mit.edu/bradley/cm5docs/ CM-5 Manuals] {{webarchive
 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902014100/http://bradley.csail.mit.edu/cm5docs/
 |date=2006-09-02
}}
*[https://www.tamikothiel.com/theory/cm_txts/di-frames.html Tamiko Thiel on the visual design of the CM-1/2/200]
*[https://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-and-connection-machine/ Feynman and the Connection Machine]
*[https://www.karlsims.com/liquid-selves.html ''Liquid Selves'', an animated short film rendered on a CM-2]

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{{S-bef|before=[[NEC SX|NEC SX-3/44]]<br />20.0 gigaflops}}
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 |title= [[TOP500|World's most powerful supercomputer]]<br /><small>Thinking Machines CM-5/1024</small>
 |years= June 1993
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{{s-aft|after=[[Numerical Wind Tunnel]]<br />124.0 gigaflops}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

[[Category:Supercomputers]]
[[Category:Parallel computing]]
[[Category:Massively parallel computers]]
[[Category:Thinking Machines supercomputers]]
[[Category:Computer-related introductions in 1984]]