Editing NCUBE (section)

=== nCUBE 2 ===
[[File:NCUBE_nCUBE-2_die.JPG|thumb|[[Die (integrated circuit)|Die]] of nCUBE 2 processor]]
For the second series the naming was changed, and they created the single-chip '''nCUBE 2''' processor. This was otherwise similar to the nCUBE 10's CPU, but ran faster, at 25 [[megahertz|MHz]] to provide about 7 MIPS and 3.5 megaFLOPS. This was later improved to 30&nbsp;MHz in the 2S model. RAM was increased as well, with 4 to 16 [[megabyte|MB]] of RAM on a "single wide" 1 inch x 3.5 inch module, with additional form factors of "double wide" (double modules), and quadruple that in a double wide, double side module. The I/O cards generally had less RAM, with different backend interfaces to support [[SCSI]], [[HIPPI]] and other protocols.
[[File:RR0 4171.JPG|thumb|Three single-chip nCUBE 2 processors on a 1" x 3.5" module with memory.]]
[[File:RR0 4174b.jpg|thumb|nCUBE 2 circuit board with 64 processors and memory]]

Each nCUBE 2 CPU also included 13 I/O channels running at 20&nbsp;Mbit/s. One of these was dedicated to I/O duties, while the other twelve were used as the interconnect system between CPUs. Each channel used [[wormhole routing]] to forward messages. The machines themselves were wired up as order-twelve hypercubes, allowing for up to 4,096 CPUs in a single machine.

Each module ran a 200&nbsp;KB [[microkernel]] called '''nCX''', but the system now used a [[Sun Microsystems]] [[workstation]] as the front end and no longer needed the Host Controller. nCX included a [[Clustered file system|parallel filesystem]] that could do 96-way [[Data striping|striping]] for high performance. [[C (programming language)|C]] and [[C++]] languages are available, as is NQS, [[Linda (coordination language)|Linda]], and [[Parasoft]]'s Express. These were supported by an in-house compiler team.

The largest nCUBE 2 system installed was at [[Sandia National Laboratories]], a 1,024-CPU system that reached 1.91 gigaFLOPS in testing. In addition the nCX operating system, it also ran the [[SUNMOS]] lightweight kernel for research purposes.<ref>{{cite report | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2397853 | title=What is SUNMOS? | access-date=2021-11-22 |author1=Rolf Riesen |author2=Lee Ann Fisk |display-authors=etal}}—a paper that explains what SUNMOS is (CiteSeer cached copy)</ref> Researchers Robert Benner, John Gustafson and Gary Montry of the Parallel Processing Division of Sandia National Laboratory first won the [[Karp Prize]] of $100 and then won the first [[Gordon Bell Prize]] in 1987 using the nCUBE 10.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://scicomp.ewha.ac.kr/netlib/benchmark/bell1 |title=The Gordon Bell Awards for 1987 |access-date=2006-04-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051111140632/http://scicomp.ewha.ac.kr/netlib/benchmark/bell1 |archive-date=2005-11-11 }}</ref>