A Cray-Z Cool Supercomputer Watch

In comparison with the pc you’re utilizing now they might not be very highly effective, however in the course of the earlier days of digital computing within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties, Cray supercomputers had been a factor to behold. Their megabytes of reminiscence and a number of processors operating at a whole lot of megahertz appeared nearly too good to be true for people who had been enjoying Bubble Bobble on a Commodore 64 or Tandy Coloration Laptop. Along with the computing energy, Cray supercomputers additionally caught individuals’s eyes with their futuristic designs that made them appear to be they belonged within the engine room of the USS Enterprise.

For a few of us, that fascination with Cray computer systems has endured by way of the years. {An electrical} engineer named Chris Fenton, who builds fashionable supercomputers by day, nonetheless enjoys enjoying with Cray applied sciences by evening. Fenton has lengthy been designing {hardware} simulations of varied Cray supercomputers in FPGAs. However regardless of the comparatively modest capabilities of those methods, FPGAs that may slot in the entire parts have been on the costly facet.

Only recently Moore’s regulation lastly smiled upon Fenton’s tasks, nevertheless, and it’s now potential to simulate a Cray C90 (moderately intently, anyway), on an affordable and compact growth board. On condition that truth — and likewise that Fenton had a extremely cool round show that was simply begging to be included in a mission (everyone knows how that goes!) — the one logical plan of action was to construct a scale mannequin of a Cray C90 right into a wristwatch.

The construct is centered round a Diligent CMOD-A7 FPGA board. This runs a single Cray CPU core at 105 MHz. Not unhealthy for a wristwatch, though the actual deal had 16 CPUs operating at 244 MHz. There may be additionally a Teensy 3.6 microcontroller packed into the watch to function a front-end computing unit. The microcontroller drives the OLED show, points reset alerts to the simulated Cray, and likewise initializes the system reminiscence. The distinctive C90 casing was 3D-printed.

Whereas these growth boards are fairly small, they aren’t small by wristwatch requirements. As such, this 1/twenty fifth scale Cray C90 seems a bit absurd on the wrist. However it’s undoubtedly not meant to be sensible, as is evidenced by what’s on the show. An ordinary time and date show, you suppose? Ha! No, this watch reveals you a simulation of the motions of Jupiter and 63 of its moons, with every physique interacting with each different physique (and reaching a sustained 40 MFLOPS). To decode these positions and decide the precise time, you will want one other Cray supercomputer!

You would possibly get an excellent exercise from sporting this watch in your wrist should you resolve to make your individual, however in some unspecified time in the future you’ll most definitely tire of it catching and snagging on every part in sight because of its large measurement. However the watch can simply as simply sit in your desk as a novelty toy, which is what Fenton is utilizing it for lately. You’ll want to take a look at the total mission write-up for extra particulars and a few fascinating Cray historical past.