Rendering the Cray 2 Supercomputer in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro - Printable Version

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Rendering the Cray 2 Supercomputer in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro - Irinikus - 12-20-2020

This is the machine that I intend rendering: (The grandest Cray 2's I've seen a picture of, as it has 16 stacks of modules, as opposed to the usual 14!)



Here's some of the source material I've gathered, giving me some idea as to ho to go about constructing it!

The construct of the internal cast chassis:




How the external panels are attached:



The top surface of the machine in question:



The back of the machine in question:



The centre of the machine in question:




The external windows of the machine in question:



The top of a standard Cray 2 to give me some idea of the displays present at the top of each stack of modules:



I've made a start on a module for the machine, making use of my own Cray 2 module as a reference:





Here's the first output from Maya: (Which took a whole damn hour to render on the Tezro!)

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RE: Rendering the Cray 2 Supercomputer in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro - robespierre - 12-20-2020

In his remarks in this conversation, Brad Blasing of the Minneapolis Supercomputer Center says the full Cray-2 was 290° of arc (4 times the "single quadrant" of 4 columns, so 16 columns of modules). Versions with only 14 columns may have had less than the full 512MW of memory installed.

He also says there was one machine made with 8 processors, with double-height columns for the added modules.

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RE: Rendering the Cray 2 Supercomputer in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro - Irinikus - 12-20-2020

Thanks for the info!

This might be the 8 processor machine, as it's columns seem to be taller than others I've seen. It's cabinet is also slightly different to the others I've seen.

EDIT:

I got this from the Cray 2 brochure:

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RE: Rendering the Cray 2 Supercomputer in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro - Irinikus - 12-20-2020

I've now basically finished with the module (Both the ECL and memory modules have the same form factor), next it's onto a power supply module. Luckily I also have one of these in my collection!

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RE: Rendering the Cray 2 Supercomputer in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro - robespierre - 12-21-2020

Nice; I'll be watching your progress.

Was the Cray 2 the first to run UNICOS, or did the X-MP run it first? As I'm sure you know, under SGI's stewardship, many of the UNICOS (or UNICOS-mk) features were ported to IRIX, such as job migration.

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RE: Rendering the Cray 2 Supercomputer in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro - Irinikus - 12-21-2020

Thanks man!

UNICOS was introduced in 1985 along with the Cray 2.

However the Cray 1 could apparently ran COS as well as UNICOS.

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RE: Rendering the Cray 2 Supercomputer in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro - Irinikus - 12-25-2020

Soon I'll make a start on modelling this little monstrosity.



The trick will be to keep the detail up, while keeping the vertex count as low as possible, as I only have 2GB of system memory to work with here!!! (Seeing that Maya 6.5 is a 32-bit application!!!!???)

I will have to make up the two different types, as the linear power supplies powering the positive and negative rails of the machine mirror each other!

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RE: Rendering the Cray 2 Supercomputer in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro - vishnu - 12-26-2020

(12-25-2020, 05:43 AM)Irinikus Wrote:  The trick will be to keep the detail up, while keeping the vertex count as low as possible, as I only have 2GB of system memory to work with here!!!

I know Tezro memory is expensive, but wouldn't it reduce your bile system angst if you bit the bullet and bought another six gig? Both my Octane2 and my Tez have 8 gig, and at this point I wouldn't live without it...

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RE: Rendering the Cray 2 Supercomputer in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro - Irinikus - 12-26-2020

(12-26-2020, 08:07 AM)vishnu Wrote:  

(12-25-2020, 05:43 AM)Irinikus Wrote:  The trick will be to keep the detail up, while keeping the vertex count as low as possible, as I only have 2GB of system memory to work with here!!!

I know Tezro memory is expensive, but wouldn't it reduce your bile system angst if you bit the bullet and bought another six gig? Both my Octane2 and my Tez have 8 gig, and at this point I wouldn't live without it...

The Tezro currently has 6GB installed, but Maya 6.5 can only access 2GB of it, due to being a 32-bit application! (This has been confirmed!)

At some point I aim to install the extra 2GB, but considering this problem, and the fact that the only high power application I run on this machine being Maya 6.5, this upgrade may not be relevant at all (I believe that you only need as much RAM as you're actually going to use! Any excess is simply a waste of resources that I could put into something else more relevant!)

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RE: Rendering the Cray 2 Supercomputer in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro - vishnu - 12-27-2020

(12-26-2020, 08:15 AM)Irinikus Wrote:  The Tezro currently has 6GB installed, but Maya 6.5 can only access 2GB of it, due to being a 32-bit application! (This has been confirmed!)

Yeah I think it wasn't until version 8 or 9 that Maya finally made it to 64-bits. Funny to think how primitive things still were a mere 15 years ago...

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