[TUHS] Re: First supercomputer UNIX: The Denelcor HEP (was Early multiprocessor Unix)

[Jon Steinhart <jon@fourwinds.com>]

Ron Natalie writes:
>
> BRL had commissioned the Denver Electronics Corporation (i.e., Denelcor) 
> to build a MIMD system called the HEP, ostensibly to do fluid dynamics 

I remember the presentation on this at Usenix.  My thought at the time was
that the HEP was a lot like what I saw when people started selling their
expensive California homes and moving to Oregon to spend that money on
mini-mansions.  Well, in California I could only afford two columns, one
dormer, and a one-car garage but now I can have 8 columns, 6 dormers, a
10 car garage, and so on.  I remember thinking at the time that the HEP
seemed like every piece of available hardware at the time glommed together.
I'm sure that more thought went in to it than that, but that was my
impression at the time.

Jon