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models (in chronological order): the CM-1, CM-2, CM-200, CM-5, and CM-5E. The CM-1 and 2 came first in models with 64K (65,536) bit-serial processors (16 processors per chip) and later, the smaller 16K and 4K configurations. The
Connection Machine was programmed in a variety of specialized
386:
966:
375:
809:, Connection Machines (non-functioning dummies) are visible in the park's control room, programmer Dennis Nedry mentions "eight Connection Machines" and a video about dinosaur cloning mentions "Thinking Machines supercomputers".
395:
432:
554:). The next year, they sold $ 65 million (USD) worth of hardware and software, making them the market leader in parallel supercomputers. Thinking Machines' primary supercomputer competitor was
842:
speaks of the NSA's "star machine from a company gone bankrupt, the Super-Connector from
Thinking Machines, Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts" in the NSA's basement. In addition, in
407:
236:. Thinking Machines made some of the most powerful supercomputers of the time, and by 1993 the four fastest computers in the world were Connection Machines. The firm filed for
507:
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613:
software for its installed base and former competitors' parallel supercomputers. In
December 1996, the parallel software development section was also acquired by
1152:
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1122:
1107:
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476:
1097:
594:. Tightening export laws also prevented the most powerful Connection Machines from being exported. By 1992, the company was losing money, and CEO
401:
Thinking
Machines CM-2 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. One of the face plates is partly removed to show the circuit boards inside.
439:
1177:
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550:(think.com). The company became profitable in 1989, in part because of its contracts from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (
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Thinking
Machines alumni (known as "Thunkos") helped create several parallel computing software start-ups, including
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609:, and TMC re-emerged as a small software company specializing in parallel software tools for commodity clusters and
884:
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624:. Oracle later acquired Sun Microsystems, thus re-uniting much of Thinking Machines' intellectual property.
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861:, it is mentioned that the pre-war firm that made the computer systems for Vaults is called Think Machine.
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reduced their purchases amid criticism they were unfairly favoring
Thinking Machines at the expense of
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says the
National Security Agency could crack nearly any book or cipher with one of three custom
844:
717:
Besides Hillis, other noted people who worked for or with the company included Robert
Millstein,
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382:
197:
1053:
919:
201:
66:
44:
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324:
All
Connection Machine models required a serial front-end processor, which was most often a
805:
774:
620:
Thinking
Machines continued as a pure data mining company until it was acquired in 1999 by
483:
282:
258:
8:
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838:
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240:
in 1994; its hardware and parallel computing software divisions were acquired in time by
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toolkit, developed by Thinking Machines' Business Supercomputer Group, was purchased by
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Computational & Information Systems Lab (CISL), Supercomputer Gallery
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745:, Mirza Mehdi, Alan Harshman, Richard Jordan, Alan Mercer, James Bailey,
722:
680:
610:
547:
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asks Franz Krieger for "Thinking Machine laptops" to help hack into the
964:, "Method and Apparatus for Operating Multi-unit Array of Memories"
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237:
233:
870:
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695:
soon after Thinking Machines Corporation entered bankruptcy in 1994.
418:
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of the Connection Machine. The CM-1 through CM-200 were examples of
170:
899:
894:
443:
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605:
bankruptcy. The hardware portion of the company was purchased by
278:
1054:'Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine' by W. Daniel Hillis
741:, Cliff Lasser, Marvin Denicoff, Alex Vasilevsky, Allan Torres,
889:
591:
571:
749:. Among the early corporate fellows of Thinking Machines were
578:, whose CS-2 was similar to the CM-5. In 1991, DARPA and the
792:
702:; and Applied Parallel Technologies, which was later renamed
587:
563:
551:
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Thinking Machines CM-200 at the Bolo Computer Museum at the
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539:
In May 1985, Thinking Machines became the third company to
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354:
1000:"SCD supercomputers, past and present (grouped by vendor)"
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711:
333:
252:
On the hardware side, Thinking Machines produced several
131:
19:"Thinking Machines" redirects here. For other uses, see
528:
270:
349:
Thinking Machines also introduced an early commercial
795:'s Connection Machines were decommissioned by 1996.
300:) architecture, while the later CM-5 and CM-5E were
515:(On the full configuration, it consists of 8 cubes)
312:processors and proprietary vector processors in a
220:architectures into a commercial product named the
1128:Defunct computer companies based in Massachusetts
574:, which made a computer similar to the CM-2, and
328:workstation, but on early models could also be a
1079:
852:designed for a Thinking Machines supercomputer.
798:
1148:Defunct software companies of the United States
1133:Defunct computer companies of the United States
1153:Lisp (programming language) software companies
16:American supercomputer and AI firm (1983–1994)
637:, would later be influential in starting the
601:In August 1994, Thinking Machines filed for
224:. The company moved in 1984 from Waltham to
1198:Technology companies disestablished in 1994
1113:Companies based in Cambridge, Massachusetts
1006:. National Center for Atmospheric Research.
633:(WAIS), developed at Thinking Machines by
32:
1183:Software companies disestablished in 1994
1123:Computer companies disestablished in 1994
1108:American companies disestablished in 1994
247:
1193:Technology companies established in 1983
1069:Thinking Machines To File for Bankruptcy
527:
440:École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
1098:1994 disestablishments in Massachusetts
979:
641:and associated projects, including the
1178:Software companies established in 1983
1118:Computer companies established in 1983
1103:American companies established in 1983
1080:
1074:, The New York Times, August 16, 1994.
1044:The Rise and Fall of Thinking Machines
942:Top500.org: Top500 Supercomputer Sites
212:to turn Hillis's doctoral work at the
668:Many of the hardware people left for
214:Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1093:1983 establishments in Massachusetts
1029:wikiquote:Mission: Impossible (film)
351:redundant array of independent disks
288:to translate code into the parallel
1138:Defunct computer hardware companies
523:
302:multiple instruction, multiple data
273:(derived by Thinking Machines from
13:
1143:Defunct computer systems companies
980:Markoff, John (29 November 1989).
676:series of parallel computers. The
580:United States Department of Energy
21:Thinking machines (disambiguation)
14:
1209:
1037:
294:single instruction, multiple data
710:, which was in turn acquired by
656:later became Sun Microsystems's
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491:
475:
459:
431:
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374:
982:"U.S. Awards Computer Contract"
885:ICL Distributed Array Processor
687:. Most of the team that built
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1010:
992:
973:
954:
930:
912:
1:
1088:Thinking Machines Corporation
1065:'s "Tales from the Interview"
905:
799:References in popular culture
330:Digital Equipment Corporation
190:Thinking Machines Corporation
27:Thinking Machines Corporation
1158:Massively parallel computers
663:
630:wide area information server
532:Advertisement poster at the
7:
864:
534:National Cryptologic Museum
500:National Cryptologic Museum
424:National Cryptologic Museum
366:Thinking Machines computers
107:; 30 years ago
56:; 41 years ago
10:
1214:
672:and went on to design the
468:Computer Museum of America
381:Thinking Machines CM-1 at
308:) that combined commodity
265:and CM Lisp (derived from
18:
645:as part of Danny Hillis'
200:(AI) company, founded in
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162:
145:
119:
101:
80:
50:
40:
31:
1061:by Alex Papadimoulis in
875:National Security Agency
658:chief technology officer
230:Cambridge, Massachusetts
210:W. Daniel "Danny" Hillis
855:In the 2008 video game
845:The Bear and the Dragon
568:Kendall Square Research
383:Computer History Museum
281:. These languages used
198:artificial intelligence
536:
248:Supercomputer products
202:Waltham, Massachusetts
1017:Movie Quotes Database
691:had already left for
647:Clock of the Long Now
562:competitors included
531:
513:Single cube of CM200.
259:programming languages
775:Charles E. Leiserson
737:, Bradley Kuszmaul,
693:Dun & Bradstreet
484:Museum of Modern Art
357:) 2 disk array, the
1163:Oracle acquisitions
938:"Sublist Generator"
926:. November 1, 2006.
920:"Thinking Machines"
873:– CM-5 used by the
216:(MIT) on massively
179:Number of employees
28:
1168:Parallel computing
815:Mission Impossible
773:, later joined by
708:Ascential Software
700:Ab Initio Software
622:Oracle Corporation
560:parallel computing
537:
413:Thinking Machines
254:Connection Machine
222:Connection Machine
218:parallel computing
167:Connection Machine
137:Ab Initio Software
26:
1059:Thinking Machines
924:Technology Review
850:operating systems
812:In the 1996 film
803:In the 1993 film
747:Tsutomu Shimomura
727:Guy L. Steele Jr.
719:Greg Papadopoulos
654:Greg Papadopoulos
196:manufacturer and
187:
186:
1205:
1050:, September 1995
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916:
787:Lennart Johnsson
706:and acquired by
670:Sun Microsystems
639:Internet Archive
615:Sun Microsystems
607:Sun Microsystems
598:was forced out.
576:Meiko Scientific
524:Business history
510:
495:
479:
463:
435:
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326:Sun Microsystems
319:computer network
242:Sun Microsystems
169:supercomputers;
127:Sun Microsystems
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29:
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867:
830:supercomputer.
820:Luther Stickell
801:
767:Richard Feynman
759:Stephen Wolfram
743:Richard Fishman
704:Torrent Systems
666:
643:Rosetta Project
526:
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1188:Supercomputers
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1038:External links
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674:Sun Enterprise
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596:Sheryl Handler
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771:Jack Schwartz
768:
764:
763:Tomaso Poggio
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755:Douglas Lenat
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751:Marvin Minsky
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556:Cray Research
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385:. See also a
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71:Massachusetts
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54:May 1983
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35:
30:
22:
1072:John Markoff
1047:
1023:
1012:
1003:
994:
985:
975:
962:US 4,899,342
956:
945:. Retrieved
941:
932:
923:
914:
880:Goodyear MPP
856:
854:
843:
837:
832:
813:
811:
804:
802:
791:
779:Alan Edelman
739:Carl Feynman
716:
697:
688:
677:
667:
651:
628:
627:The program
626:
619:
600:
538:
498:CM-5 at the
486:(MoMA), NYC.
482:CM-2 at the
417:
350:
348:
344:Lisp machine
337:minicomputer
323:
313:
301:
293:
261:, including
251:
189:
188:
146:Headquarters
93:Danny Hillis
41:Company type
839:Rainbow Six
783:Eric Lander
723:David Waltz
681:data mining
611:data mining
548:domain name
283:proprietary
267:Common Lisp
1082:Categories
947:2019-01-03
906:References
834:Tom Clancy
652:Architect
603:Chapter 11
277:), and CM
238:bankruptcy
234:MIT AI Lab
871:FROSTBURG
858:Fallout 3
836:'s novel
731:Karl Sims
664:Dispersal
566:, nearby
558:. Other
419:FROSTBURG
359:DataVault
341:Symbolics
286:compilers
171:DataVault
151:Cambridge
120:Successor
900:SUPRENUM
895:Parsytec
865:See also
541:register
466:CM-1 at
444:Lausanne
442:(EPFL),
315:fat tree
163:Products
828:Langley
660:(CTO).
422:at the
279:Fortran
173:storage
110: (
102:Defunct
81:Founder
67:Waltham
61:1983-05
59: (
51:Founded
45:Private
968:
890:MasPar
785:, and
769:, and
689:Darwin
685:Oracle
678:Darwin
592:MasPar
590:, and
572:MasPar
570:, and
470:(CMoA)
332:(DEC)
192:was a
793:DARPA
588:nCUBE
564:nCUBE
552:DARPA
310:SPARC
263:*Lisp
1027:See
584:Cray
545:.com
415:CM-5
355:RAID
306:MIMD
298:SIMD
208:and
183:1000
157:U.S.
112:1994
105:1994
75:U.S.
826:'s
824:CIA
712:IBM
339:or
334:VAX
269:),
228:in
132:IBM
1084::
1046:,
1002:.
984:.
940:.
922:.
818:,
789:.
781:,
777:,
765:,
761:,
757:,
753:,
733:,
729:,
725:,
721:,
714:.
649:.
617:.
586:,
543:a
346:.
321:.
271:C*
244:.
155:,
73:,
69:,
988:.
950:.
446:.
426:.
389:.
353:(
304:(
296:(
275:C
114:)
63:)
23:.
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