SUPRENUM
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry |
Computer hardware Computer software |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Successor | PALLAS GmbH |
| Founded | 1986 |
| Founder | Prof. Ulrich Trottenberg |
| Defunct | Jul 12, 2010 |
| Headquarters | Bonn, Germany |
|
Key people
|
Prof. Ulrich Trottenberg |
| Products | SUPRENUM-1 Supercomputer, PEACE Operating System |
| Owner | Prof. Ulrich Trottenberg, Krupp Atlas Elektronik GmbH, Stollmann GmbH, GMD FIRST |
SUPRENUM (German: SUPerREchner für NUMerische Anwendungen, English: super-computer for numerical applications) was a German research project to develop a parallel computer from 1985 through 1990. It was a major effort which was aimed at developing a national expertise in massively parallel processing both at hardware and at software level.
Although the Suprenum-1 computer was the fastest massively parallel MIMD computer in the world during a period in 1992, the project was set and is considered a commercial failure.
Funded by the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology (BMFT), the SUPRENUM project began in 1985 and BMFT funding continued until 1990 when a fully configured 256-node prototype Suprenum-1 machine was available. The project's inception in 1985 was preceded by a definition phase lasting more than one year in which ideas were gathered, concepts were formed and project partners were selected.
The project was two-tiered, of which only the first step was taken. In particular it was planned the following:
The mandate accompanying the funding was to create a project that included both a research and a commercial side. To this end, the SUPRENUM Supercomputer GmbH was founded in Bonn. The SUPRENUM Supercomputer GmbH's charge was to manage the whole enterprise, to contribute to the software effort, to coordinate software developments, and to exploit and market the results of the project. The commercial goal required that companies with manufacturing expertise be involved. The research aspects required that various university and government research laboratories should participate. The final team consisted of about 15 groups from different institutions all over Germany, including several large companies as well as the small SUPRENUM Supercomputer GmbH. They were
The tasks were assigned the following:
While the research group on parallel numerical methods in Sankt Augustin provided the know-how for the applications (solving partial differential equations), the German Society for Mathematics and Data Processing GMD FIRST(German: Forschungszentrums für Innovative Rechnersysteme und -technologie, English: Research centre for innovative computer systems and technologies) in Berlin, provided the necessary know-how in hardware and operating system design. A total of 15 research groups in academic institutions across Germany were involved in the project. The involvement of the industry was limited to the production of hardware at Krupp Atlas Elektronik.
...
Wikipedia