Memo on IBM TF-1

Jun Makino

• "It should be working in 1991" This is part of a report written in 1988.
• The most powerful computer proposed to date is the IBM TF-1, or Terra Flop processor. This machine will be able to execute over 10^12 floating point operations per second. It will be built from 32,768 general purpose processors each one of which will have 12 megabytes of memory. Each processor will have a 20 nanosecond cycle time and can theoretically execute two floating point operations per cycle for a peak theoretical rating of 10^8 floating point operations per processor per second, or 3.2 * 10^12 for the whole system. The peak execution rate cannot be sustained for most programs, so the more realistic 10^12 number is generally used. The processors are connected by a communications network of 24,000 special purpose communication chips. The network can transfer one byte per processor per cycle, with a delay of 20 cycles from the time data leaves the source processor to the time it reaches the destination processor when the communications network is unloaded. A modest additional delay would be expected in most actual applications due to collisions in the network. Although the system will not be made commercially available, the estimated total system cost is expected to be around $120,000,000. The system should be completed within two years (by 1990), in This document