The story
Funded by the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology (BMFT), the SUPRENUM project began in 1985 and BMFT funding continued until 1990 when a fully configured 256-node prototype Suprenum-1 machine was available.
The project's inception in 1985 was preceded by a definition phase lasting more than one year in which ideas were gathered, concepts were formed and project partners were selected.
The project was two-tiered, of which only the first step was taken. In particular it was planned the following:
Suprenum 1 subproject: production of a high-speed MIMD computer
Suprenum 2 subproject: expanding the core applications and algorithmic service classes to include complex and dynamic grid structures; data-dependent adaptive procedures, irregular and highly dimensional grids, Monte Carlo methods based on grid structures, non-grid applications, etc., development of innovative language concepts which support automatic load distribution (particularly with dynamic grid structures) to the multiple-processor structure, investigation of alternative interconnecting structures (other topologies, variable interconnection networks) in particular with regard to dynamic grid structures and automatic load distribution strategies, new processor technologies (VLSI, GaAs and so on).
The mandate accompanying the funding was to create a project that included both a research and a commercial side. To this end, the SUPRENUM Supercomputer GmbH was founded in Bonn. The SUPRENUM Supercomputer GmbH's charge was to manage the whole enterprise, to contribute to the software effort, to coordinate software developments, and to exploit and market the results of the project. The commercial goal required that companies with manufacturing expertise be involved. The research aspects required that various university and government research laboratories should participate. The final team consisted of about 15 groups from different institutions all over Germany, including several large companies as well as the small SUPRENUM Supercomputer GmbH.
They were
four (or five, resp.) major research institutes: GMD (German: Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung, English: society for mathematics and informatics) both their sites in Sankt Augustin and Berlin, KfA (German: KernForschungsAnstalt, Jülich, English: institute for nuclear research in Jülich), KfK (German: KernForschungszentrum Karlsruhe, English: centre for nuclear research in Karlsruhe), DLR
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five universities: Darmstadt, Bonn, Braunschweig, Düsseldorf, Erlangen-Nürnberg
two industrial users: Dornier, Kraftwerk Union
two companies: Krupp Atlas Elektronik GmbH, Stollmann GmbH
and Suprenum GmbH
The tasks were assigned the following:
In the applications software area: DLR, Dornier GmbH, the GMD, the Kernforschungsanlage Jülich GmbH (KFA), the Kernforschungsanlage Karlsruhe GmbH (KfK), Kraftwerk Union AG and the University of Düsseldorf.
In the language level area: GMD, the Technical University at Darmstadt and the University of Bonn.
In the systems area: GMD, Krupp Atlas Elektronik GmbH, Stollmann GmbH, the Technical University at Brunswick and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
While the research group on parallel numerical methods in Sankt Augustin provided the know-how for the applications (solving partial differential equations), the German Society for Mathematics and Data Processing GMD FIRST (German: Forschungszentrums für Innovative Rechnersysteme und -technologie, English: Research centre for innovative computer systems and technologies) in Berlin, provided the necessary know-how in hardware and operating system design.
A total of 15 research groups in academic institutions across Germany were involved in the project. The involvement of the industry was limited to the production of hardware at Krupp Atlas Elektronik.
Only five systems were shipped.
Since Jul 12, 2010 SUPRENUM Supercomputer GmbH ist defunct.
After the end of the SUPRENUM project, Pallas GmbH evolved out of the remains of SUPRENUM GmbH in 1991. In 2003, the company sold its high performance computing division to the Intel Corporation.
In contrast to the then ubiquitous, conventional vector computers (e.g. NEC SX architecture, Cray Y-MP), SUPRENUM-1 pursued as one of the first a massively parallel design. However, competitors like Thinking Machines Corporation were catching up fast.
From Wikipedia’s article on SUPRENUM, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3