On 07/14/2015 07:11 PM, William Donzelli wrote:
I suppose you could view it that way. There were CPU-less 6000 boxes, but
no PPU-less ones.
Were the CPU-less 6000 boxes at least connected to "normal" 6000s with
CPUs using shared ECS, or could they really be completely independent
units using their own ECS?
The 6416 was a special beast--I don't know that CDC ever produced any
standard software for it. It had 16KW of CM and it's own ECS coupler, so
I suppose that it could share ECS with other machines--but IIRC the ECS
access was via its own special instructions.
I suspect that some 6416s just communicated with other systems using the
6682(?) satellite coupler. I suspect that they were largely superseded
by the "additional PPU" machines.
I never ran into a 6416 in the flesh, but was aware of more than one 20
PPU 6000 (there were never enough PPUs). CDC also offered "PPU-reduced"
models of the 6400, with up to 3 PPUs removed, which never made any
sense to me.
--Chuck
