Technology and Design Tradeoffs in the Creation of a Modern Supercomputer

Supercomputers, which derive their title from the relative power they possess in any given period of computer life cycle, possess certain qualities which make their creation unique in the general milieu of computational engines. The interaction of technology, architecture, manufacturing, and user demands gives rise to compromises and design decisions which challenge the supercomputer developer. The nature of some of these challenges and their resolution, in the case of the production of the Control Data CYBER 205, is discussed in this paper in an attempt to elevate supercomputer development from the mystique of being an art to the level of a science of synergistic combination of programming, technology, structure, and packaging.