NSA spy machine

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

Tim posted a few days ago:

I was intrigued by this disappearance, so I sent an e-mail 
message to  Gunter Ahrendt. Through the joys of time zones, my 
message this evening was  answered within minutes, from 
Australia.

He told me the NSA machine remains, though it has been renamed, 
has been  put under another site, and its performance rating 
has been recalculated  based on a new metric. Gunter's latest 
report (in comp.sys.super) explains  the new metric.

Grepping for the name "SMPP," here's where I found it:

58) 16.46 - (APR-1994) [SRC]
        Supercomputing Research 
Center,Bowie,Maryland,US,root@super.org
        1) Cray 3/4-128 [-4Q96]           11.46?
        2) SRC Terasys                  ~  5
        3) SRC SMPP-4/2M [+4Q96]         503.33?

This is also very intriguing. The machine formerly called the 
"NSA  SMPP-2/2M" and expected to be located at NSA Central 
Security Service, is  now to be located in nearby Bowie at the 
Supercomputing Research Center.

End Tim ----------------------------


The NY Times says (in a business report):

"The new Cray computer will be a hybrid design called the Cray 
3/Super Scalable System.  It will link two supercomputer 
processors with an array of chips containing half a million 
inexpensive processors that were designed by a Government 
laboratory connected with the NSA.

* * *

The Cray 3 supercomputer, two years late to market when it 
appeared last year, has not yet found a customer, and Cray 
executives said they were pinning their hopes for survival on 
the Cray 4, due to be completed in the first quarter of next 
year."

End Times ----------------------------


Does Gunter's "Cray 3/4" = hybrid design as Tim suggests today?

How do the numbers compare to Peter's?

On another point, then, does today's contract report merely 
tell an out-of-date story, and if so, why?

A way to keep Cray afloat?  If so, why not Thinking Machines?

Mr. Cray has been a loyal NSA supplier for many years, perhaps 
this is for his well-earned retirement.  Okay by me.  Maybe 
then he can afford to share all his supercomp secrets.


John