ELXSI
More info
- Released
- 1979–1995
- Type
- Minisupercomputer maker
A 64-bit minisupercomputer built around a fast message bus — and Gene Amdahl's refuge when the wafer dream collapsed.
ELXSI was founded around 1979 in San Jose and built the System 6400: a 64-bit multiprocessor in which several CPUs talked over a shared high-speed bus (the "Gigabus") in ECL logic, early for its day. The machines ran the in-house EMBOS and later Unix. Sales never kept pace, and in 1985 the company was bought by Trilogy Systems — Gene Amdahl moved in the wreckage of his failed wafer project and made ELXSI his new vehicle. Neither the bus nor Amdahl saved it in the long run.