Nobody but Us: A History of Cray Research's Software and the Building of the World's Fastest Supercomputer

Edward W. Barnard

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Introduction

The First Invisible Battlefield (Radio Intelligence)

The Human Cost of Staying First
- Contrasting Fates Determined by Radio Intelligence (1941-1943)
- The Invisible Battlefield Emerges (1903-1905)
- Second Invisible Battleground Emerges (1949)
- Human Cost Induces “Wizard Thinking”
- Connecting the Invisible Threads
- Summary
The Pattern Creators
Decoding the Bootleggers
Decoding the Naval Disarmament Conference
- Vice Admiral Kamimura Hikonojō
- Russian Pacific Fleet Depredations
- First Wartime Radio Traffic Analysis
- Fourteen Points to Port and Annihilate
- Arms Race
- Age of Sail
- Pre-Dreadnaught Battleships
- Two-Ocean Navy
- Washington Naval Conference
- Teapot Dome
- Strategic Imperative
- Summary
Flying Against the Imperial Japanese Navy
Was Location “AF” Midway, or the Aleutian Islands?
Hedy Lamarr, the Mother of WiFi

The Wizard’s Approach to Pattern Recognition

Profile of the “Real Programmer”
- A Debugging Skill
- Coding Challenges
- Fizz Buzz
- Recursion
- Whiteboard Interview
- Insecurities
- Profile Describing a Real Programmer
- Track and Field
- Fizz Buzz Practice
- Summary
Think Like a Computer
The Basics With a Side of Crypto
Design an Algorithm in Your Head
What Can the NSA Teach Us About Debugging?
Problem in a Box
Vacuum Tube Blackjack
Running the Numbers
Transcendent Patterns

The Second Invisible Battlefield (Nuclear Deterrence)

The Kiev Computer
- A Note on Source Material
- Finding the Right Viewpoint
- The Kiev Computer
- Comparing to CDC 6600 (1964)
- Floating Point and Simulation
- Cost Per FLOP
- Blocks
- Polish Notation
- Institute in Physics and Computers
- First Principles
- Additional Reading
- Summary
Project Whirlwind
Semi-Automatic Ground Environment
Engineering Research Associates
- See Saw
- Index of Coincidence
- Analysis of A Single Text
- Message Comparison
- Near War’s End
- Sole Source Contract
- National Security Agency
- Purpose of Analytical Machines
- Summary
Control Data Corporation
Cray Research
My First CRAY-1
- Nobody but Us
- The Trade Secret
- The Cray Way
- CRAY-1 Arrives
- Bare Metal
- Memory Banks
- Summary
Big Iron

Legacy of the Invisible Battlefield

Software Development
- Vectorizing Software
- Seymour’s Memo
- On-Line Tape Software
- Summary
My NSA Mug Shot
It Was Nothing, They Said
Ducky Day
The Transitive Property of Keeping Your Mouth Shut
The Veil
Oil Across the Water
Desert Shield

The Invisible Battlefield Develops Mastery

Remembering “Scuzzy”
Gate Keeping
Imposter Syndrome
The Road Less Traveled
- Cross-Domain Thinking
- Constraint Transformation
- The Path Taken
- The “Revolutionizer” Patterns
The Wizard’s Mirror

Teaching Rocket Science

The Search for Scientists
- Science as Plunder
- Forced Labor
- IG Farben Company
- IG Farben Auschwitz
- The Osenberg List
Lady of the Lake Discovers Bomb Test
Camelot, the German Rocket Scientists at Peenemünde
Mittelwerk Extermination
Sputnik Satellite Becomes Defense Priority

Sample Chapter

Sample Chapter: Becoming the Revolutionizer

Nobody but Us: A History of Cray Research's Software and the Building of the World's Fastest Supercomputer/Legacy of the Invisible Battlefield/Desert Shield

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Eastern Province

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Notary Public

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Summary

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Up next

Remembering “Scuzzy”

In this chapter

Desert Shield
Eastern Province
Notary Public
Summary