<s>
The	O
Intel	B-Device
Personal	I-Device
SuperComputer	I-Device
(	O
Intel	B-Device
iPSC	I-Device
)	O
was	O
a	O
product	O
line	O
of	O
parallel	B-Operating_System
computers	I-Operating_System
in	O
the	O
1980s	O
and	O
1990s	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
iPSC	O
used	O
a	O
hypercube	B-Operating_System
of	O
connections	O
between	O
the	O
processors	O
internally	O
inspired	O
by	O
the	O
Caltech	B-Operating_System
Cosmic	I-Operating_System
Cube	I-Operating_System
research	O
project	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
that	O
reason	O
,	O
it	O
was	O
configured	O
with	O
nodes	O
numbering	O
with	O
power	O
of	O
two	O
,	O
which	O
correspond	O
to	O
the	O
corners	O
of	O
hypercubes	B-Operating_System
of	O
increasing	O
dimension	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Intel	O
announced	O
the	O
iPSC/1	O
in	O
1985	O
,	O
with	O
32	O
to	O
128	O
nodes	O
connected	O
with	O
Ethernet	O
into	O
a	O
hypercube	B-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
system	O
was	O
managed	O
by	O
a	O
personal	B-Device
computer	I-Device
of	O
the	O
PC/AT	B-Operating_System
era	O
running	O
Xenix	B-Application
,	O
the	O
"	O
cube	O
manager	O
"	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Each	O
node	O
had	O
a	O
80286	B-General_Concept
CPU	O
with	O
80287	O
math	B-General_Concept
coprocessor	I-General_Concept
,	O
512K	O
of	O
RAM	B-Architecture
,	O
and	O
eight	O
Ethernet	O
ports	O
(	O
seven	O
for	O
the	O
hypercube	B-Operating_System
interconnect	O
,	O
and	O
one	O
to	O
talk	O
to	O
the	O
cube	O
manager	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
basic	O
models	O
were	O
the	O
iPSC/d5	O
(	O
five-dimension	O
hypercube	B-Operating_System
with	O
32	O
nodes	O
)	O
,	O
iPSC/d6	O
(	O
six	O
dimensions	O
with	O
64	O
nodes	O
)	O
,	O
and	O
iPSC/d7	O
(	O
seven	O
dimensions	O
with	O
128	O
nodes	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Extra	O
memory	O
(	O
iPSC-MX	O
)	O
and	O
vector	B-Operating_System
processor	I-Operating_System
(	O
iPSC-VX	O
)	O
models	O
were	O
also	O
available	O
,	O
in	O
the	O
three	O
sizes	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
four-dimensional	O
hypercube	B-Operating_System
was	O
also	O
available	O
(	O
iPSC/d4	O
)	O
,	O
with	O
16	O
nodes	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
iPSC/1	O
was	O
called	O
the	O
first	O
parallel	B-Operating_System
computer	I-Operating_System
built	O
from	O
commercial	O
off-the-shelf	O
parts	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
allowed	O
it	O
to	O
reach	O
the	O
market	O
about	O
the	O
same	O
time	O
as	O
its	O
competitor	O
from	O
nCUBE	B-Application
,	O
even	O
though	O
the	O
nCUBE	B-Application
project	O
had	O
started	O
earlier	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
available	O
in	O
several	O
configurations	O
,	O
the	O
base	O
setup	O
being	O
one	O
cabinet	O
with	O
16	O
Intel	B-General_Concept
80386	I-General_Concept
processors	O
at	O
16MHz	O
,	O
each	O
with	O
4MB	O
of	O
memory	O
and	O
a	O
80387	O
coprocessor	O
on	O
the	O
same	O
module	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Instead	O
of	O
Ethernet	O
,	O
a	O
custom	O
Direct-Connect	O
Module	O
with	O
eight	O
channels	O
of	O
about	O
2.8Mbyte/s	O
data	O
rate	O
each	O
was	O
used	O
for	O
hypercube	B-Operating_System
interconnection	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
base	O
modules	O
could	O
be	O
upgraded	O
to	O
the	O
SX	O
(	O
Scalar	O
eXtension	O
)	O
version	O
by	O
adding	O
a	O
Weitek	O
1167	O
floating	B-General_Concept
point	I-General_Concept
unit	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
nodes	O
of	O
iPSC/2	O
ran	O
the	O
proprietary	O
NX/2	O
operating	O
system	O
,	O
while	O
the	O
host	O
machine	O
ran	O
System	B-Operating_System
V	I-Operating_System
or	O
Xenix	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Nodes	O
could	O
be	O
configured	O
like	O
the	O
iPSC/1	O
without	O
and	O
local	O
disk	O
storage	O
,	O
or	O
use	O
one	O
of	O
the	O
Direct-Connect	O
Module	O
connections	O
with	O
a	O
clustered	B-Application
file	I-Application
system	I-Application
(	O
called	O
concurrent	B-Operating_System
file	O
system	O
at	O
the	O
time	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
iPSC/860	O
consisted	O
of	O
up	O
to	O
128	O
processing	O
elements	O
connected	O
in	O
a	O
hypercube	B-Operating_System
,	O
each	O
element	O
consisting	O
of	O
an	O
Intel	B-General_Concept
i860	I-General_Concept
at	O
40	O
–	O
50MHz	O
or	O
Intel	B-General_Concept
80386	I-General_Concept
microprocessor	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
iPSC/860	O
was	O
also	O
the	O
original	O
development	O
platform	O
for	O
the	O
Tachyon	B-Application
parallel	I-Application
ray	I-Application
tracing	I-Application
engine	I-Application
that	O
became	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
SPEC	O
MPI	O
2007	O
benchmark	O
,	O
and	O
is	O
still	O
widely	O
used	O
today	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
iPSC	O
line	O
was	O
superseded	O
by	O
a	O
research	O
project	O
called	O
the	O
Touchstone	B-Device
Delta	I-Device
at	O
the	O
California	O
Institute	O
of	O
Technology	O
which	O
evolved	O
into	O
the	O
Intel	B-Device
Paragon	I-Device
.	O
</s>
