The Scalar Performance of Three Supercomputers Cray’s X-MP/2, Fujitsu’s VP-200 and NEC’s SX-2

Abstract

Since the first delivery, late in 1983, of the Cray X-MP/2, Fujitsu VP-200 and Hitachi S-810/20 supercomputers, the race in the scientific computing area has considerably accelerated its pace. In 1984, both the Fujitsu VP-400 and the Cray X-MP/4 were first introduced and in the Fall of 1985 the Cray2 and the NEC SX-2 supercomputers were first brought into the market. The total number of systems delivered up to now include more than 120 Cray systems, about 30 CDC systems, about 30 VP systems, 4 Hitachi systems. So far, 3 NEC SX systems have been shipped in Japan and one SX-2 system will be delivered to the Houston Area Research Center this year, it will be the first delivery of a Japanese system to an Academic Institution in the US. In this article we shall give an introduction to the SX-2 system, compare some of its features with those of the Fujitsu VP-200 and CRAY X- MP/2 supercomputers (although not discussing in detail the latter systems) and survey the scalar performance of these three systems on five fluid dynamics codes used as benchmarks. A vector performance study of these three systems will be postponed to a later article.