<s>
NEC	B-Device
SX	I-Device
describes	O
a	O
series	O
of	O
vector	B-Operating_System
supercomputers	B-Architecture
designed	O
,	O
manufactured	O
,	O
and	O
marketed	O
by	O
NEC	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
computer	O
series	O
is	O
notable	O
for	O
providing	O
the	O
first	O
computer	O
to	O
exceed	O
1	O
gigaflop	O
,	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
the	O
fastest	B-Operating_System
supercomputer	I-Operating_System
in	O
the	O
world	O
between	O
1992	O
–	O
1993	O
,	O
and	O
2002	O
–	O
2004	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
current	O
model	O
,	O
as	O
of	O
2018	O
,	O
is	O
the	O
SX-Aurora	B-Device
TSUBASA	I-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
SX-3	O
allows	O
parallel	B-Operating_System
computing	I-Operating_System
using	O
both	O
SIMD	B-Device
and	O
MIMD	B-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
also	O
switched	O
from	O
the	O
ACOS-4	B-Application
based	O
SX-OS	B-Application
,	O
to	O
the	O
AT&T	O
System	O
V	O
UNIX-based	O
SUPER-UX	B-Operating_System
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
SX-3/44	O
variant	O
was	O
the	O
fastest	B-Operating_System
computer	I-Operating_System
in	O
the	O
world	O
between	O
1992-1993	O
on	O
the	O
TOP500	B-Operating_System
list	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Since	O
the	O
SX-4	O
,	O
SX	O
series	O
supercomputers	B-Architecture
are	O
constructed	O
in	O
a	O
doubly	O
parallel	B-Operating_System
manner	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
number	O
of	O
central	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
units	I-General_Concept
(	O
CPUs	O
)	O
are	O
arranged	O
into	O
a	O
parallel	B-Operating_System
vector	B-Operating_System
processing	I-Operating_System
node	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
These	O
nodes	O
are	O
then	O
installed	O
in	O
a	O
regular	O
SMP	B-Operating_System
arrangement	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
SX-5	O
was	O
announced	O
and	O
shipped	O
in	O
1998	O
,	O
with	O
the	O
SX-6	B-Device
following	O
in	O
2001	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
SX-7	O
in	O
2002	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Starting	O
in	O
2001	O
,	O
Cray	O
marketed	O
the	O
SX-5	O
and	O
SX-6	B-Device
exclusively	O
in	O
the	O
US	O
,	O
and	O
non-exclusively	O
elsewhere	O
for	O
a	O
short	O
time	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Earth	B-Device
Simulator	I-Device
,	O
built	O
from	O
SX-6	B-Device
nodes	O
,	O
was	O
the	O
fastest	B-Operating_System
supercomputer	I-Operating_System
from	O
June	O
2002	O
to	O
June	O
2004	O
on	O
the	O
LINPACK	B-Device
benchmark	I-Device
,	O
achieving	O
35.86	O
TFLOPS	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
of	O
2020	O
,	O
3	O
Nvidia	B-Device
RTX	I-Device
2080	I-Device
Ti	I-Device
graphics	O
cards	O
can	O
deliver	O
comparable	O
performance	O
,	O
at	O
14	O
TFLOPS	O
per	O
card	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
SX-9	B-Device
was	O
introduced	O
in	O
2007	O
and	O
discontinued	O
in	O
2015	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Tadashi	O
Watanabe	O
has	O
been	O
NEC	O
's	O
lead	O
designer	O
for	O
the	O
majority	O
of	O
SX	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
systems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
this	O
work	O
he	O
received	O
the	O
Eckert	O
–	O
Mauchly	O
Award	O
in	O
1998	O
and	O
the	B-Device
Seymour	I-Device
Cray	I-Device
Computer	I-Device
Engineering	I-Device
Award	I-Device
in	O
2006	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
+	O
Multi-node	O
SX	O
systems	O
SX-4	O
SX-4A	O
SX-5	O
SX-6	B-Device
SX-8	B-Device
SX-8R	O
SX-9	B-Device
SX-ACE	B-Device
Max	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
SX-1	O
and	O
SX-2	O
ran	O
the	O
ACOS-4	B-Application
based	O
SX-OS	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
SX-3	O
onwards	O
run	O
the	O
SUPER-UX	B-Operating_System
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
(	O
OS	O
)	O
;	O
the	O
Earth	B-Device
Simulator	I-Device
runs	O
a	O
custom	O
version	O
of	O
this	O
OS	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
SUPER-UX	B-Operating_System
comes	O
with	O
Fortran	B-Application
and	O
C++	B-Language
compilers	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
Cray	O
has	O
also	O
developed	O
an	O
Ada	B-Language
compiler	B-Language
which	O
is	O
available	O
as	O
an	O
option	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Some	O
vertical	B-Application
applications	I-Application
are	O
available	O
through	O
NEC	O
,	O
but	O
in	O
general	O
customers	O
are	O
expected	O
to	O
develop	O
much	O
of	O
their	O
own	O
software	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
addition	O
to	O
commercial	O
applications	O
,	O
there	O
is	O
a	O
wide	O
body	O
of	O
free	B-Application
software	I-Application
for	O
the	O
UNIX	O
environment	O
which	O
can	O
be	O
compiled	B-Language
and	O
run	O
on	O
SUPER-UX	B-Operating_System
,	O
such	O
as	O
Emacs	B-Application
,	O
and	O
Vim	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
port	O
of	O
GCC	B-Application
is	O
also	O
available	O
for	O
the	O
platform	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
SX-Aurora	B-Device
TSUBASA	I-Device
PCIe	O
card	O
is	O
running	O
in	O
a	O
Linux	B-Application
machine	O
,	O
the	O
Vector	B-Operating_System
Host	O
(	O
VH	O
)	O
,	O
which	O
provides	O
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
services	O
to	O
the	O
Vector	B-Operating_System
Engine	O
(	O
VE	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VE	O
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
VEOS	O
runs	O
in	O
user	O
space	O
on	O
the	O
VH	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Applications	O
compiled	B-Language
for	O
the	O
VE	O
can	O
use	O
almost	O
all	O
Linux	B-Application
system	O
calls	O
,	O
they	O
are	O
transparently	O
forwarded	O
and	O
executed	O
on	O
the	O
VH	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
components	O
of	O
VEOS	O
are	O
licensed	O
under	O
the	O
GNU	B-License
General	I-License
Public	I-License
License	I-License
.	O
</s>
