[HN Gopher] Amsterdam Compiler Kit for Cray X-MP
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Amsterdam Compiler Kit for Cray X-MP
Author : basementcat
Score : 88 points
Date : 2025-01-26 20:17 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| basementcat wrote:
| Note that this generates executables for COS, the batch
| processing operating system and not UNICOS, the System V UNIX
| port.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray_Operating_System
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICOS
| paulhart wrote:
| 30+ years ago I did a week's "work experience" at the UK offices
| of Cray Research in Bracknell (and, shockingly, _nobody_ had ever
| approached them before to do this).
|
| I spent a couple of days with the software support team and was
| given an account on a UNICOS-running X-MP (hostname was either
| "forest" or "wind" - I specifically remember the second because
| the motd said "if you have problems with wind, please contact
| [redacted]" and that made my 16yo brain chuckle). Anyway, my
| benchmarking program was to calculate all the factorials up to
| 100!, and then repeat the process a lot. Fibbonacci, as given in
| the README, seems like more fun ;)
| basementcat wrote:
| Hopefully you seldom broke wind while you were there.
| wakawaka28 wrote:
| Can someone please explain what this is good for and whether it
| is purely of historical interest? It sounds interesting but the
| readme isn't shedding much light on it.
| basementcat wrote:
| ACK is a compiler suite (perhaps analogous to gcc). Kevin
| Jordan maintains a fork of ACK that generates code for the Cray
| X-MP, a member of a family of famous vector supercomputers. As
| much of the original software for the Cray family has been
| lost, this ACK fork may be the only remaining way to program a
| Cray X-MP (running COS) in a high level language.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam_Compiler_Kit
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray_X-MP
|
| You may be able to run generated executables in an emulator or
| online.
|
| http://www.nostalgiccomputing.org/
|
| https://github.com/andrastantos/cray-sim
| wakawaka28 wrote:
| Thanks!
| AMICABoard wrote:
| One super upvote!I used used this cray ack to some demo code. I
| really admire kej715 for adding a backend to ack just from
| reading specification and limited access to hardware as there are
| no loving cray 1's anymore. I had to try it! Did't build at first
| so I even contributed a tiny fix to make it work on my sys.
|
| This is also the guy who wrote a DtCyber that emulates many
| vintage super computers and stuff. Pretty cool! Thank you man!
| fentonc wrote:
| This is awesome! I recovered the only copy of COS
| (http://www.chrisfenton.com/cos-recovery/), but we never really
| had a way to use it.
| andrewstuart wrote:
| Finally I can put that Cray X-MP in my basement to work.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Oh wow, I could compile Mitch Bradley's very portable CForth to
| run on the Cray finally! I wanted to do that from the first time
| I ever saw a Cray.
|
| https://github.com/MitchBradley/cforth
|
| My "Evil Software Hoarder" friend Mike Gallaher and I from
| UniPress Software visited Apple once so he could compile and
| install the latest version of UniPress Emacs on their Cray. I
| think it was their purple Cray XMP/28 running UNICOS. I don't
| remember which compiler it used, though.
|
| https://wiki.c2.com/?AppleCrayComputer
|
| https://cray-history.net/2021/07/16/apple-computer-and-cray-...
|
| https://i0.wp.com/cray-history.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/0...
|
| https://i0.wp.com/cray-history.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/0...
|
| https://i0.wp.com/cray-history.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/0...
|
| https://i0.wp.com/cray-history.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/0...
|
| https://retrocomputingforum.com/t/apples-purple-cray-hooked-...
|
| UniPress ported and sold a commercial version of the "Extended
| Amsterdam Compiler Kit" for Andrew Tanenbaum for many CPUs and
| versions of Unix (like they also ported and sold his Unix version
| of Emacs for James Gosling), so Emacs might have been compiled
| with ACK on the Cray, but I don't recall.
|
| During the late 80's and early 90's, UniPress's Enhanced ACK cost
| $9,995 for a full source license, $995 for an educational source
| license, with front ends for C, Pascal, BASIC, Modula-2, Occam,
| and Fortran, and backends for VAX, 68020, NS32000, Sparc, 80368,
| and others, on many contemporary versions of Unix.
|
| Rehmi Post at UniPress also made a back-end for ACK that compiled
| C to PostScript for the NeWS window system and PostScript
| printers, called "c2ps", which cost $2,995 for binaries or
| $14,995 for sources.
|
| Independently Arthur van Hoff wrote a different C to PostScript
| compiler called "PdB" at the Turing Institute, not related to
| c2ps. It was a much simpler, more powerful, more direct compiler
| written from scratch, and it supported object oriented PostScript
| programming in NeWS, subclassing PostScript from C or C from
| PostScript. I can't remember how much Turing sold it for, but I
| think it was less than c2ps.
|
| https://compilers.iecc.com/comparch/article/92-04-041
|
| http://www.aaronjamesrogers.com/misc/hotmix16/vendors/sgi/ap...
|
| https://donhopkins.com/home/archive/NeWS/NeScheme.txt
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10088193
|
| I got to watch Apple's Cray compile Emacs very quickly through
| the plexiglass viewing window, but they wouldn't let me sit or
| nap on it, alas.
|
| I knew a guy who worked at one of the national labs that had its
| own Cray supercomputer, in a computer room with a big observation
| window that visitors could admire it through, of course (all
| Crays required observations windows to show them off).
|
| Just before a tour group came by, he hid inside the Cray, and
| waited for them to arrive. Then he casually strolled out from the
| back of the Cray, pulling up the zipper of his jeans, with a
| sheepish relieved expression on his face, looked up and saw the
| tour group, acted startled, then scurried away.
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