Alliant Computer Systems
More info
- Creator
- Ron Gruner, Craig Mundie
- Released
- 1982–1992
- Type
- Minisupercomputer maker
A minisupercomputer whose compiler parallelised ordinary Fortran automatically across eight custom compute elements.
Founded in 1982 in Massachusetts (first as Dataflow Systems). The 1985 FX/8 wired up to eight custom "Computational Elements" to a shared memory, and the real trick was the compiler: it vectorised and parallelised existing Fortran without the programmer rewriting a line. The later FX/2800 switched to Intel's i860. Like so many neighbours in the Route 128 cluster, Alliant couldn't survive the shift as cheap RISC workstations ate the market from below — bankrupt in 1992.