[rescue] CRAY Alert!

[Skeezics Boondoggle]

On Sun, 2 Feb 2003, Dave McGuire wrote:

>    I think that's a damn fine price for a CS6400.  I'm gonna see what I  
> can sell real quick to drum up some cash. :)

Yes, you'll notice who the current high bidder is... I spotted this
auction on Friday afternoon, and I swear I was going to send a note to
rescue, really!  I promise! :-)  (I've been at work for the last 48 hours
and this is the first chance I've had to sit down and catch up on
email...)

Here's the deal:

	I have the money.  I should get my taxes done to make sure that's 
	still going to be true in April, but right now...

		I don't have the space... and I don't think my boss would
		appreciate MORE Crays in the lobby, even though they look
		really cool!

	I have a CS6400 already and want to add boards+power supplies.

		I don't reeeally need three more complete chassis...

	I work in a building with massive infrastructure, including 
	three-phase power, cooling, fiber connectivity, and everything you 
	need to provide a proper environment...

		For a price.

	I have contacted the seller, hoping to work something out with
	him when the only bidder was a guy with zero feedback who'd bid 
	$14...obviously, not serious...

		He hasn't replied.

	I bid on the suckers so at least he'd know I'm serious.	

		I'm seriously insane, that is...

	I'd be tickled pink to do a deal with you guys to split up the 
	bounty and the costs...


Some technical issues for potential bidders:

	This sucker requires heavy three-phase power.  It's rated a max
	46A @ 240V!  That's hefty.  I suspect it would be difficult-to- 
	impossible to try to convert this machine to single-phase, but I
	haven't really pulled the innards apart to look at the power
	distribution... it isn't just the big blowers that would have to
	be rewired; the power supplies have a specific insertion order so
	that the current draw is balanced across all three hot legs...

	I figured out once that the 6400, one I/O cabinet, and three 
	SC2000's would set me back over $600/mo in electricity alone.  
	(That's as much as I pay in rent...)  To run one of these 24x7, 
	you would have to be a seriously committed individual. :-)

	I have an SSP and schematics for the JTAG cable.  The only semi- 
	magical part you'd need to turn any old SparcStation into an SSP 
	would be the Sbus card that matches up with that cable.  I think 
	in later revs of the control board you _can_ boot the machine (at 
	least in a single domain configuration?) without the SSP, but then 
	you're flying blind...

	There aren't any I/O cabinets included.  Not a big deal, because 
	it's really just a big honking SPARC Solaris box, so it uses 
	standard Sbus controllers.  But you want the I/O cabinet, and the 
	kewl pneumatic lifters that open the top cowling... badass. :-)

	It only runs "Cray Solaris 2.5" (or 2.6, if I could get my hands 
	on it...)  If by some *miracle* sources were available... it would 
	be interesting to see if it could be upgraded to Solaris 8 (end of 
	the line for sun4d support; don't know what differences there are 
	between the sun4d and sun4d6/cray4d other than #define NUMXDBUS 4
	instead of 2. :-)

	They weigh about 1,500 lbs.  They dwarf a Sun 56" cabinet.  This 
	machine will not likely fit in your house, and it will probably 
	seriously challenge the shocks on your typical pickup or SUV.  
	You'll need a friend to help move it.  Or three.

	These are *rare*.  Supposedly only 200 or so were built; that 
	makes them one of the most popular machines Cray ever built, but 
	they're still damned hard to find, and that means ya gotta have 
	spares.  Scrounging up those spares has proven a challenge... the 
	CPU modules are NOT standard Mbus SuperSPARCs;  the connectors are
	different, and the board layouts are different - likely because
	the 6400 runs four XDbuses @ 55Mhz, and the stock Sun Mbus modules
	(SM61-2 or SM81-2) handle only one or two.  Memory is not the same 
	as the Sun 1000/2000, either.

All that said, these are *totally cool* machines. :-)  I remember when the
6400 was announced, and lusted after one then.  It's too bad I didn't go
do some dumpster diving in Beaverton or think to call on our local Sun
folks when Sun bought them up - I just didn't think I'd ever be able to
own a machine who's list price started at $450K and went up from there...

D'oh.

Anyway, I'll keep after the seller to see what I can work out.  At the
very least, I need about half a dozen power supply modules to get the
machine I have now up and running with its 7 fully-populated system
boards.

At most, I would buy a fully-loaded box and divvy up the innards to
support a pair of 44-way machines...

In my wildest dreams, I'd snag all three, *cluster them*, and run a game
server of some kind and take $12/year subscriptions via PayPal to pay part
of the electric bill... just need 5,000 of my closest friends to pitch
in... (Hey, over 10 years ago I started a MUD with some friends that grew
to over 12,000 players - it can happen!)

I would be interested in a group buy.  I'd be interested in starting a
non-profit computer history museum and take grants and donations to build
out or lease a nice space to house these machines.  I'd be interested in
working out a deal where n of us buy this batch of machines and set it up
here in a colo, piggybacking off my company's bandwidth and sharing the
space+power costs.  You could ssh to your machine's SSP and power stuff on
and off remotely; I'd be willing to be the on-site guy if necessary; hell,
I'm here 28 hours a day anyway...

The bottom line, however, is that I do NOT want these machines to end up
being junked or scrapped.  If fellow rescuers want to work out a deal of
some kind, I'd like to contribute/participate/coordinate... if they're
really hoping to get $7500 out of those, we can always just wait; as long
as we outbid the scrap dealer, the amount of warehouse space those three
big monsters takes up will eventually encourage them to lower their asking
price. :-)

Cheers,

-- Chris