From the archives: the supercomputer Cray at ETH Zurich
The SRF programme Mensch, Technik, Wissenschaft from September 9, 1988, reported on the supercomputer Cray X-MP/28, which can still be found at ETH Zurich today – albeit in a somewhat different function.
Anyone who has been to the E floor of the CAB building on Universitätsstrasse 6 has seen it, and probably sat on it: the bright yellow Cray X-MP/28, a supercomputer from the 1980ies. While it serves as the world's most expensive bench today, it was a cutting-edge piece of technology at the time, costing around 5 million Swiss francs. Its 64 MB of RAM and two 118 MHz processors enabled ETH Zurich to pursue new research avenues in electrical engineering, medical imaging and computer science. Today, any smartphone outperforms the Cray X-MP/28 by more than a hundred times. The element on display is just the processor unit. An input-output system for connecting tape drives and hard drives was also a part of the supercomputer.
In the programme MTW – Mensch, Technik, Wissenschaft that aired on September 9, 1988, moderator Peter Lippuner marveled at the supercomputer in the computing centre of ETH Zurich and interviewed Professor Carl August Zehnder about the Cray's potential and the future of supercomputing in Switzerland. Among other things, Zehnder mentions the plans for the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre CSCS, which he helped found:
40 years D-INFK
In 1981, the computer science curriculum was introduced at ETH Zurich. At the same time, the IIIC division was established, which was the foundation for today's Department of Computer Science. On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, we present people and stories that have influenced the department over the past four decades.