Editing NCUBE

{{short description|Series of parallel computing computers}}
{{Other|Ncube (disambiguation)}}
{{lowercase|title=nCUBE}}
'''nCUBE''' was a series of [[parallel computing]] computers from the company of the same name. Early generations of the hardware used a custom [[microprocessor]]. With its final generations of servers, nCUBE no longer designed custom microprocessors for machines, but used server-class chips manufactured by a third party in [[massively parallel]] hardware deployments, primarily for the purposes of [[Video on demand|on-demand video]].

== Company history ==
{{Infobox company
| name             = nCUBE
| logo             = 
| caption          = 
| type             = 
| genre            = 
| fate             = 
| predecessor      = 
| successor        = 
| founded = {{Start date and age|1983}}
| founder          = 
| defunct          = 
| hq_location_city    = [[Beaverton, Oregon]]
| hq_location_country = [[United States]]
| area_served      = 
| key_people       = [[Larry Ellison]]
| industry         = [[Parallel computing]], [[video on demand]]
| products         = 
| services         = 
| revenue          = 
| operating_income = 
| net_income       = 
| aum              = 
| assets           = 
| equity           = 
| owner            = 
| num_employees    = 
| parent           = [[Arris Group]]
}}

===Founding and early growth ===
nCUBE was founded in 1983 in [[Beaverton, Oregon]], by a group of [[Intel]] employees (Steve Colley, Bill Richardson, John Palmer, Doran Wilde, Dave Jurasek) frustrated by Intel's reluctance to enter the [[parallel computing]] market, though Intel released its [[Intel iPSC|iPSC/1]] in the same year as the first nCUBE was released. In December 1985, the first generation of nCUBE's hypercube machines were released. The second generation (N2) was launched in June 1989. The third generation (N3) was released in 1995. The fourth generation (N4) was released in 1999.

In 1988, [[Larry Ellison]] invested heavily in nCUBE and became the company's majority shareholder. The company's headquarters were relocated to [[Foster City, California]], to be closer to the [[Oracle Corporation]]. In 1994, [[Ronald Dilbeck]] became CEO and set nCUBE on a fast track to an [[initial public offering]].{{Citation needed|reason=needs clarification on where the information is taken from|date=March 2019}}

=== Pivot to video ===
In 1996, Ellison [[Layoff|downsized]] nCUBE. Dilbeck left and Ellison took over as acting CEO, redirecting the company to become Oracle's [[Network Computer]] division.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ginsberg |first1=Steve |title=Chopped Up nCube |url= https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/1997/02/03/focus6.html |access-date=19 April 2021 |work=San Francisco Business Times |date=2 February 1997}}</ref> After the network computer diversion, nCUBE resumed development on video servers. nCUBE deployed its first VOD video server in [[Dubai]]'s [[Burj al-Arab]] hotel.{{Citation needed|reason=needs clarification on where the information is taken from|date=March 2019}}

In 1999, nCUBE announced it was acquiring [[SkyConnect]], a seven-year-old software company based in [[Louisville, Colorado]], which developed digital advertising and VOD software for [[cable television]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Video On Demand Powerhouse Created; Video Server Leader nCUBE to Acquire SkyConnect, Inc. |url=http://www.ncube.com/pressroom/pressreleases/pr1999_03_17.html |work=nCUBE Press Releases |date=17 March 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050225095447/http://www.ncube.com/pressroom/pressreleases/pr1999_03_17.html|archive-date= 25 February 2005}}</ref> In the 1990s, nCUBE shifted its focus from the parallel computing market and, by 1999, had identified itself as a [[video on demand]] (VOD) solutions provider, shipping over 100 VOD systems delivering 17,000 streams and establishing a relationship with [[Microsoft TV]].<ref>{{cite web|title=nCUBE to Integrate its Industry Leading Video-on-Demand Solutions With the Microsoft TV Platform|url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ncube-to-integrate-its-industry-leading-video-on-demand-solutions-with-the-microsoft-tv-platform-77674197.html|access-date=10 February 2017}}</ref> The company was once again on IPO fast-track, only to be halted again after the bursting of [[dot-com bubble]].

=== Lawsuits and dot-com aftermath ===
In 2000, [[SeaChange International]] filed a patent infringement suit against nCUBE, alleging its [[NCUBE#Computer models|nCUBE MediaCube-4]] product infringed on a SeaChange patent. A jury upheld the validity of SeaChange's patent and awarded damages. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit subsequently overturned the ruling on June 29, 2005. A separate lawsuit against SeaChange was filed by nCUBE in 2001 after it acquired the patents from Oracle's interactive television division. nCUBE claimed that SeaChange's video server offering violated its VOD patent on delivery to [[set-top box]]es.<ref name="santo">{{cite news |last1=Santo |first1=Brian |title=VOD Patent Battle Turns Bitter |work=CableWORLD |publisher=CableFAX | 
url=http://www.broadband-pbimedia.com/cgi/cw/show_mag.cgi?pub=cw&mon=011501&file=vod_patent_battle.inc|archive-date= 22 April 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050422144624/http://www.broadband-pbimedia.com/cgi/cw/show_mag.cgi?pub=cw&mon=011501&file=vod_patent_battle.inc}}</ref> nCUBE won the lawsuit and was awarded over $2 million in damages.<ref name="brian">{{cite news |last1=Morrissey |first1=Brian |title=nCube Wins VoD Patent Fight with SeaChange |url=http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/1150571 |access-date=19 April 2021 |work=Internet News |date=30 May 2002}}</ref> SeaChange appealed, but the decision was upheld in 2004.<ref name="ced">{{cite news |last1=Baumgartner |first1=Jeff |title=Judge upholds jury decision in nCUBE-SeaChange patent spat |url=http://www.cedmagazine.com/cedailydirect/2004/0404/cedaily040413.htm |work=CED Magazine |date=13 April 2004 |archive-date= 4 December 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041204130603/http://www.cedmagazine.com/cedailydirect/2004/0404/cedaily040413.htm}}</ref>

On the business front, the dot-com bubble burst and ensuing recession as well as lawsuits meant that nCUBE was not doing well. In April 2001 nCUBE laid off 17% of its workforce and began closing offices (Foster City in 2002 and Louisville in 2003) to downsize and consolidate the company around its Beaverton manufacturing office.<ref>[https://books.google.com/print/doc?articleid=bvYzlGZNiUE nCUBE's 2001 layoff.]{{dead link|date=November 2012}}</ref> Also in 2002, Ellison stepped down and named former SkyConnect CEO Michael J. Pohl as CEO.<ref>{{cite news |title=Michael J. Pohl Named President and CEO of nCUBE |url=http://www.ncube.com/pressroom/pressreleases/pr2002_03_04_pohl.html |work=nCUBE press releases |date=4 March 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050228184715/http://www.ncube.com/pressroom/pressreleases/pr2002_03_04_pohl.html|archive-date= 28 February 2005}}</ref>

=== Acquired ===
In January 2005, nCUBE was acquired by [[C-COR]] for approximately $89.5 million, with an [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission|SEC]] filing for the purchase in October 2004.<ref>{{cite web|title=ARRIS / Investors / SEC Filings|url=http://ir.arris.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=87823&p=irol-SECText&TEXT=aHR0cDovL2FwaS50ZW5rd2l6YXJkLmNvbS9maWxpbmcueG1sP2lwYWdlPTUyNjA2ODMmRFNFUT0xJlNFUT02NCZTUURFU0M9U0VDVElPTl9QQUdFJmV4cD0mc3Vic2lkPTU3|access-date=10 February 2017}}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=C-COR Completes Purchase Of nCUBE |work=nCUBE press release |date=3 January 2005 |url =http://www.ncube.com/pressroom/pressreleases/pr2005_01_03_c-cor.html|archive-date= 8 March 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050308175007/http://www.ncube.com/pressroom/pressreleases/pr2005_01_03_c-cor.html}}</ref>

In December 2007, C-COR was acquired by [[Arris Group|ARRIS]].

== Computer models ==
=== nCUBE 10 ===
One of the first nCUBE machines to be released was the '''nCUBE 10''' of late 1985. It was originally called '''NCUBE/ten''' but the name morphed over time. These were based on a set of custom chips, where each compute node had a processor chip with [[32-bit]] [[Arithmetic logic unit|ALU]], a [[64-bit]] [[IEEE 754]] [[floating point unit|FPU]], special communication instructions, and 128 [[kilobyte|KB]] of [[Random Access Memory|RAM]]. A node delivered 2 [[million instructions per second|MIPS]], 500 [[FLOP|kiloFLOPS]] (32-bit [[single precision]]), or 300 kiloFLOPS (64-bit [[double precision]]). There were 64 nodes per board. The host board, based on an [[Intel 80286]], ran '''Axis''', a custom Unix-like [[operating system]], and each compute node ran a 4&nbsp;KB kernel, Vertex.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1109/MM.1986.304707 |author1=Hayes, J. |author2=Mudge, T. |author3=Stout, Q. |author4=Colley, S. |author5=Palmer, J. |name-list-style=amp | year = 1986 | title = A microprocessor-based hypercube supercomputer | journal = IEEE Micro | volume = 6 | issue = 5 | pages = 6–17 |citeseerx=10.1.1.645.8596 |s2cid=7927930 }}</ref>

'''nCUBE 10''' referred to the machine's ability to build an order-ten [[hypercube]], supporting 1,024 CPUs in a single machine. Some of the modules would be used strictly for [[input/output]], which included the '''nChannel''' storage control card, [[frame buffers]], and the InterSystem card that allowed nCUBEs to be attached to each other. At least one host board needed to be installed, acting as the terminal driver. It could also [[virtualization|partition the machine into "sub-cubes"]] and allocate them separately to different users.

=== 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>

===nCUBE-3===
The '''nCUBE-3''' CPU used a 64-bit [[arithmetic logic unit]] (ALU). Its improvements included a process-shrink to 0.5u, allowing the speed to be increased to 50&nbsp;MHz (with plans for 66 and 100&nbsp;MHz). The CPU was also [[superscalar]] and included 16&nbsp;KB instruction and data [[CPU cache|caches]], and a [[memory management unit]] for virtual memory support.

Additional I/O links were added, with 2 dedicated to I/O and 16 for interconnects, allowing for up to 65,536 CPUs in the hypercube. The channels operated at 100&nbsp;Mbit/s, due to use of 2-bit parallel lines, instead of the serial lines used previously. The nCUBE-3 also added [[Fault tolerance|fault-tolerant]] adaptive routing support, in addition to fixed routing, although in retrospect it's not entirely clear why.

A fully loaded nCUBE-3 machine can use up to 65,536 processors, for 3 million MIPS and 6.5 teraFLOPS; the maximum memory would be 65&nbsp;TB, with a network I/O capability of 24&nbsp;TB/second.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Duzett|first1=B|last2=Buck|first2=R|title=&#91;Proceedings 1992&#93; the Fourth Symposium on the Frontiers of Massively Parallel Computation|chapter=An overview of the nCUBE 3 supercomputer|date=19–21 Oct 1992|volume=[Proceedings 1992]|pages=458–464|doi=10.1109/FMPC.1992.234880|isbn=978-0-8186-2772-9|s2cid=58781077}}</ref> Thus, the processor is biased in terms of I/O, which is usually the limitation. The nChannel board provides 16 I/O channels, where each channel can support transfers at 20&nbsp;MB/s.

A [[microkernel]] was developed for the nCUBE-3 machine, but it was never completed, having been abandoned in favor of [[Plan 9 from Bell Labs|Plan 9]]'s Transit operating system.

===nCUBE-4===
The nCUBE-4 marked the transition to commodity processors, with each node containing an Intel [[IA-32|IA32]] server-class CPU. The n4 also brought exclusive focus on video streaming rather than scientific applications. Each hub contained one hypercube node, one CPU, a pair of [[Peripheral Component Interconnect|PCI buses]], and up to 12 [[SCSI]] drives. The n4 was followed by the n4x, the n4x r2, and the n4x r3. These last two were based on the [[Serverworks]] chipset rather than the Intel ones. The nCUBE-5 was very similar to the n4 family but incorporated two hypercube nodes in each hub and only supported video streaming over [[Gigabit Ethernet]].

In 1999, nCUBE announced the MediaCUBE 4, which supported 80 simultaneous 3&nbsp;Mbit/s streams to 44,000 simultaneous VOD streams, in concurrent [[MPEG-2]], [[MPEG-1]] and mid bit-rate encoding protocols.<ref>{{cite web|title=nCUBE to Integrate its Industry Leading Video-on-Demand Solutions With the Microsoft TV Platform|url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ncube-to-integrate-its-industry-leading-video-on-demand-solutions-with-the-microsoft-tv-platform-77674197.html|access-date=10 February 2017}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Ametek]]
* [[INMOS transputer]]
* [[iWarp]]
* [[Parsytec]]
* [[SUPRENUM]]

== References ==

{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20030512172227/http://www.npac.syr.edu/nse/hpccsurvey/orgs/ncube/ncube.html nCUBE Corporation (description of their machines)]

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[[Category:1983 establishments in Oregon]]
[[Category:2005 disestablishments in Oregon]]
[[Category:2005 mergers and acquisitions]]
[[Category:American companies established in 1983]]
[[Category:American companies disestablished in 2005]]
[[Category:Beaverton, Oregon]]
[[Category:Computer companies established in 1983]]
[[Category:Computer companies disestablished in 2005]]
[[Category:Defunct companies based in Oregon]]
[[Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct computer hardware companies]]
[[Category:Defunct computer systems companies]]
[[Category:Massively parallel computers]]
[[Category:Plan 9 from Bell Labs]]
[[Category:Privately held companies based in Oregon]]
[[Category:Supercomputers]]