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nCUBE

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A fully loaded nCUBE-3 machine can use up to 65,536 processors, for 3 million MIPS and 6.5 teraFLOPS; the maximum memory would be 65 TB, with a network I/O capability of 24 TB/second. Thus, the processor is biased in terms of I/O, which is usually the limitation. The nChannel board provides
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product infringed on a SeaChange patent. A jury upheld the validity of SeaChange's patent and awarded damages. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit subsequently overturned the ruling on June 29, 2005. A separate lawsuit against SeaChange was filed by nCUBE in 2001 after it acquired the
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On the business front, the dot-com bubble burst and ensuing recession as well as lawsuits meant that nCUBE was not doing well. In April 2001 nCUBE laid off 17% of its workforce and began closing offices (Foster City in 2002 and Louisville in 2003) to downsize and consolidate the company around its
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in the same year as the first nCUBE was released. In December 1985, the first generation of nCUBE's hypercube machines were released. The second generation (N2) was launched in June 1989. The third generation (N3) was released in 1995. The fourth generation (N4) was released in 1999.
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Additional I/O links were added, with 2 dedicated to I/O and 16 for interconnects, allowing for up to 65,536 CPUs in the hypercube. The channels operated at 100 Mbit/s, due to use of 2-bit parallel lines, instead of the serial lines used previously. The nCUBE-3 also added
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of RAM on a "single wide" 1 inch x 3.5 inch module, with additional form factors of "double wide" (double modules), and quadruple that in a double wide, double side module. The I/O cards generally had less RAM, with different backend interfaces to support
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Each nCUBE 2 CPU also included 13 I/O channels running at 20 Mbit/s. One of these was dedicated to I/O duties, while the other twelve were used as the interconnect system between CPUs. Each channel used
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lightweight kernel for research purposes. Researchers Robert Benner, John Gustafson and Gary Montry of the Parallel Processing Division of Sandia National Laboratory first won the
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chipset rather than the Intel ones. The nCUBE-5 was very similar to the n4 family but incorporated two hypercube nodes in each hub and only supported video streaming over
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server-class CPU. The n4 also brought exclusive focus on video streaming rather than scientific applications. Each hub contained one hypercube node, one CPU, a pair of
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patents from Oracle's interactive television division. nCUBE claimed that SeaChange's video server offering violated its VOD patent on delivery to
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In 1999, nCUBE announced the MediaCUBE 4, which supported 80 simultaneous 3 Mbit/s streams to 44,000 simultaneous VOD streams, in concurrent
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to provide about 7 MIPS and 3.5 megaFLOPS. This was later improved to 30 MHz in the 2S model. RAM was increased as well, with 4 to 16
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to forward messages. The machines themselves were wired up as order-twelve hypercubes, allowing for up to 4,096 CPUs in a single machine.
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division. After the network computer diversion, nCUBE resumed development on video servers. nCUBE deployed its first VOD video server in
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employees (Steve Colley, Bill Richardson, John Palmer, Doran Wilde, Dave Jurasek) frustrated by Intel's reluctance to enter the
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but the name morphed over time. These were based on a set of custom chips, where each compute node had a processor chip with
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Beaverton manufacturing office. Also in 2002, Ellison stepped down and named former SkyConnect CEO Michael J. Pohl as CEO.
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Hayes, J.; Mudge, T.; Stout, Q.; Colley, S. & Palmer, J. (1986). "A microprocessor-based hypercube supercomputer".
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invested heavily in nCUBE and became the company's majority shareholder. The company's headquarters were relocated to
564: 215:. In the 1990s, nCUBE shifted its focus from the parallel computing market and, by 1999, had identified itself as a 488:, a 1,024-CPU system that reached 1.91 gigaFLOPS in testing. In addition the nCX operating system, it also ran the 322: 1094: 474: 536:
adaptive routing support, in addition to fixed routing, although in retrospect it's not entirely clear why.
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drives. The n4 was followed by the n4x, the n4x r2, and the n4x r3. These last two were based on the
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was developed for the nCUBE-3 machine, but it was never completed, having been abandoned in favor of
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nCUBE. Dilbeck left and Ellison took over as acting CEO, redirecting the company to become Oracle's
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The nCUBE-4 marked the transition to commodity processors, with each node containing an Intel
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computers from the company of the same name. Early generations of the hardware used a custom
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processor. This was otherwise similar to the nCUBE 10's CPU, but ran faster, at 25
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Duzett, B; Buck, R (19–21 Oct 1992). "An overview of the nCUBE 3 supercomputer".
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For the second series the naming was changed, and they created the single-chip
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16 I/O channels, where each channel can support transfers at 20 MB/s.
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as the front end and no longer needed the Host Controller. nCX included a
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Three single-chip nCUBE 2 processors on a 1" x 3.5" module with memory.
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filed a patent infringement suit against nCUBE, alleging its
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referred to the machine's ability to build an order-ten
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One of the first nCUBE machines to be released was the
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hardware deployments, primarily for the purposes of
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nCUBE 2 circuit board with 64 processors and memory
792:"Michael J. Pohl Named President and CEO of nCUBE" 1015:nCUBE Corporation (description of their machines) 375:and allocate them separately to different users. 230: 1021: 1075:Defunct computer companies of the United States 172:became CEO and set nCUBE on a fast track to an 313:, special communication instructions, and 128 520:and included 16 KB instruction and data 207:, a seven-year-old software company based in 733:"nCube Wins VoD Patent Fight with SeaChange" 484:The largest nCUBE 2 system installed was at 131: 756: 948: 264:for approximately $ 89.5 million, with an 203:In 1999, nCUBE announced it was acquiring 1065:Computer companies disestablished in 2005 1050:American companies disestablished in 2005 869: 730: 268:filing for the purchase in October 2004. 1100:Privately held companies based in Oregon 638: 425: 417: 382: 271:In December 2007, C-COR was acquired by 901:Rolf Riesen; Lee Ann Fisk; et al. 292:of late 1985. It was originally called 260:In January 2005, nCUBE was acquired by 1060:Computer companies established in 1983 1045:American companies established in 1983 1022: 373:partition the machine into "sub-cubes" 590:and mid bit-rate encoding protocols. 724: 701: 473:languages are available, as is NQS, 240: 1080:Defunct computer hardware companies 835:"C-COR Completes Purchase Of nCUBE" 757:Baumgartner, Jeff (13 April 2004). 639:Ginsberg, Steve (2 February 1997). 13: 1085:Defunct computer systems companies 750: 278: 148:market, though Intel released its 45: 14: 1116: 1070:Defunct companies based in Oregon 1008: 925:"The Gordon Bell Awards for 1987" 814:"ARRIS / Investors / SEC Filings" 707: 179: 1035:2005 disestablishments in Oregon 953:. Vol. . pp. 458–464. 841:. 3 January 2005. Archived from 731:Morrissey, Brian (30 May 2002). 710:"VOD Patent Battle Turns Bitter" 496:of $ 100 and then won the first 983: 942: 917: 894: 849: 827: 672:. 17 March 1999. Archived from 806: 798:. 4 March 2002. Archived from 784: 773: 680: 658: 632: 442:Each module ran a 200 KB 231:Lawsuits and dot-com aftermath 1: 1040:2005 mergers and acquisitions 1030:1983 establishments in Oregon 625: 551:'s Transit operating system. 136:nCUBE was founded in 1983 in 1090:Massively parallel computers 645:San Francisco Business Times 528:for virtual memory support. 500:in 1987 using the nCUBE 10. 486:Sandia National Laboratories 450:, but the system now used a 333:), or 300 kiloFLOPS (64-bit 7: 593: 283: 255: 75:; 41 years ago 10: 1121: 716:. CableFAX. Archived from 554: 503: 378: 15: 132:Founding and early growth 117: 105: 87: 69: 55: 959:10.1109/FMPC.1992.234880 237:SeaChange International 174:initial public offering 162:Foster City, California 880:10.1109/MM.1986.304707 526:memory management unit 465:for high performance. 431: 423: 391: 367:storage control card, 164:, to be closer to the 18:Ncube (disambiguation) 1095:Plan 9 from Bell Labs 514:arithmetic logic unit 461:that could do 96-way 429: 421: 415:and other protocols. 386: 363:, which included the 345:, a custom Unix-like 321:. A node delivered 2 802:on 28 February 2005. 796:nCUBE press releases 780:nCUBE's 2001 layoff. 676:on 25 February 2005. 670:nCUBE Press Releases 390:of nCUBE 2 processor 209:Louisville, Colorado 16:For other uses, see 839:nCUBE press release 769:on 4 December 2004. 459:parallel filesystem 52: 641:"Chopped Up nCube" 512:CPU used a 64-bit 432: 424: 392: 166:Oracle Corporation 146:parallel computing 60:Parallel computing 50: 36:massively parallel 28:parallel computing 1055:Beaverton, Oregon 968:978-0-8186-2772-9 720:on 22 April 2005. 498:Gordon Bell Prize 241:nCUBE MediaCube-4 184:In 1996, Ellison 138:Beaverton, Oregon 129: 128: 93:Beaverton, Oregon 1112: 1002: 1001: 999: 997: 987: 981: 980: 946: 940: 939: 937: 936: 927:. Archived from 921: 915: 913: 911: 910: 898: 892: 891: 873: 853: 847: 846: 845:on 8 March 2005. 831: 825: 824: 822: 820: 810: 804: 803: 788: 782: 777: 771: 770: 765:. 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In 1994, 124:Arris Group 1024:Categories 935:2006-04-03 909:2021-11-22 858:IEEE Micro 714:CableWORLD 626:References 494:Karp Prize 205:SkyConnect 107:Key people 866:CiteSeerX 565:PCI buses 357:hypercube 327:kiloFLOPS 294:NCUBE/ten 235:In 2000, 186:downsized 156:In 1988, 977:58781077 905:(Report) 742:19 April 650:19 April 620:SUPRENUM 615:Parsytec 594:See also 524:, and a 479:Parasoft 463:striping 365:nChannel 353:nCUBE 10 329:(32-bit 308:IEEE 754 290:nCUBE 10 284:nCUBE 10 256:Acquired 56:Industry 888:7927930 555:nCUBE-4 510:nCUBE-3 504:nCUBE-3 446:called 396:nCUBE 2 379:nCUBE 2 200:hotel. 78: ( 70:Founded 975:  965:  886:  868:  600:Ametek 588:MPEG-1 584:MPEG-2 549:Plan 9 522:caches 490:SUNMOS 477:, and 341:, ran 325:, 500 305:64-bit 298:32-bit 150:iPSC/1 119:Parent 973:S2CID 884:S2CID 610:iWarp 475:Linda 413:HIPPI 273:ARRIS 262:C-COR 194:Dubai 142:Intel 51:nCUBE 24:nCUBE 998:2017 963:ISBN 821:2017 744:2021 695:2017 652:2021 569:SCSI 561:IA32 508:The 469:and 409:SCSI 343:Axis 323:MIPS 303:, a 80:1983 73:1983 955:doi 876:doi 471:C++ 448:nCX 400:MHz 388:Die 319:RAM 317:of 311:FPU 301:ALU 266:SEC 196:'s 1026:: 971:. 961:. 882:. 874:. 860:. 837:. 794:. 761:. 735:. 712:. 668:. 643:. 586:, 579:. 543:A 411:, 404:MB 315:KB 275:. 227:. 176:. 96:, 62:, 42:. 1000:. 979:. 957:: 938:. 912:. 890:. 878:: 862:6 823:. 746:. 697:. 654:. 467:C 82:) 20:.

Index

Ncube (disambiguation)
parallel computing
microprocessor
massively parallel
on-demand video
Parallel computing
video on demand
Beaverton, Oregon
United States
Larry Ellison
Parent
Arris Group
Beaverton, Oregon
Intel
parallel computing
iPSC/1
Larry Ellison
Foster City, California
Oracle Corporation
Ronald Dilbeck
initial public offering
downsized
Network Computer
Dubai
Burj al-Arab
SkyConnect
Louisville, Colorado
cable television
video on demand
Microsoft TV

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