Connection Machine CM-1
A parallel computer with 65,536 tiny processors, housed in a black cube with blinking red lights.
Danny Hillis founded Thinking Machines in 1983 to build the computer he had described in his MIT doctoral work. The first CM-1 systems shipped in 1986. Each had 65,536 one-bit processors, grouped 16 to a chip and wired in a 12-dimensional hypercube so that any processor was a few steps from any other.
The machine was designed for problems like image processing, simulation and artificial intelligence, where many small calculations can run at once. Tamiko Thiel led the industrial design of the cabinet, a black cube with panels of red lights that showed processor activity.
Why it matters
The CM-1 was an early and well known example of massively parallel computing, the idea that many simple processors can solve a large problem together. Graphics processors and cloud data centers use the same principle today.
Key facts
- First systems shipped in 1986.
- 65,536 one-bit processors.
- Processors joined in a 12-dimensional hypercube.
- Cabinet designed by Tamiko Thiel with red LEDs.
Sources
- Campbell-Kelly, Martin, and William Aspray, et al. Computer: A History of the Information Machine. 3rd ed. Westview Press, 2013.
- Hillis, W. Daniel. The Connection Machine. MIT Press, 1985.
- Computer History Museum, Connection Machine collection records.