Hacker News Reader

Comment by numpad0 | Hacker News Reader

Was there ever a GUI for Crays? I don’t bet on it but think there’s no image to run Doom on GCP or AWS for the same reason, a keyboard is not but a graphical array display is among requirements for void portDoomWithoutReason(); to be called from OnFoundCapableComputerDoomPlayable(machine Box)

View on HN

One of the purposes of X was to run the work on a super computer and display it back to your desktop. Generally it was expected that time on the super computer was too expensive for interactive use, but you might display back a running simulation to see status.

Ah that seems so obvious now that you mention it - a sort of "thin client" model - but I was genuinely confused finding an X11 binary on a company AS400 the other day. Granted, that machine is older than I am. At least that binary makes sense now.

There was a third party frame buffer. Apple had one and used it to prototype advanced UX on their Cray.

That sounds like an interesting story. Do you have any further info about Apple using a Cray for prototyping?

There is an often cited quote from Seymour Cray when asked about Apple using Cray computers to design the next Apple: "That's interesting, because I'm designing the next Cray with an Apple!"

https://wiki.c2.com/?AppleCrayComputer

Some people take this seriously, not realizing that Seymour was being sarcastic. He used pencil and paper to design his computers, not even an Apple II.

Thermal design, fluid dynamics. Apple said as much in advertising at the time, IIRC

Interestingly enough, Jean-Louis Gassée briefly mentions something about using a Cray to develop what was to be an Apple-designed processor decades before it was fully realized https://mondaynote.com/joining-apple-40-years-ago-805114536a... (See a little more than halfway through the article)

For those interested in the details of the cancelled Apple processor, here is the manual:

https://archive.org/details/scorpius_architecture

If all else fails, a vnc server might be an option...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com