A Spanish computing museum has built a 1:1 scale replica of the classic Cray‑1 supercomputer using 30 Intel Mac minis, delivering up to 1.5 teraflops—far surpassing the original’s 160 megaflops. The 18‑month project, a visual homage to both the Cray‑1’s 50th anniversary and Apple’s founding, stacks the minis vertically behind glass. Most units are 2012 Mac minis with a mix of dual‑core i5 and quad‑core i7 CPUs, totaling 64 cores, running macOS Mojave 10.14 with MPI for node communication.
While the replica uses parallel processing instead of the Cray‑1’s vector architecture, it already outperforms its historic predecessor. The museum has launched a crowdfunding drive to add 70‑80 additional M4 Mac minis to complete the tower and aim for a Top500 listing.
Source: AppleInsider · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing