{"id":2,"date":"2026-06-26T13:03:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/extrehard.com\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2026-09-29T23:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T23:21:36","slug":"replica-cray-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/extrehard.com\/index.php\/replica-cray-1\/","title":{"rendered":"We built a full-scale, functional replica of the Cray-1 supercomputer, powered by a macOS X UNIX cluster consisting of 30 Mac minis.\n\/\nConstruimos una r\u00e9plica funcional a tama\u00f1o real del Supercomputador Cray-1 propulsada por un cl\u00faster UNIX de macOS X con 30 Mac mini."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Computer History Museum bridges half a century of technological history by building an exact reproduction of the legendary machine from scratch and transforming obsolete Apple hardware into a 1.5-teraflop distributed cluster.
Majadas de Ti\u00e9tar, Spain \u2014 September 29, 2026 \u2014 Marking the upcoming 50th anniversary of Apple\u2019s founding and the debut of the legendary Cray-1, the Computer History Museum (the project’s base of operations in Spain) has unveiled a spectacular, full-scale replica of Seymour Cray\u2019s masterpiece, built entirely by the museum itself. The true engineering milestone lies within: its computing brain is powered by a distributed cluster of 30 repurposed 2012 Apple Mac mini computers.
The project is the result of over a year and a half of work involving structural design, metalwork, and systems engineering. The initiative demonstrates how consumer hardware often deemed obsolete can enjoy a second life\u2014in this case, by providing the technical and operational viability for a physical reproduction of the system that defined scientific supercomputing during the Cold War.
64 processing cores running on the macOS X UNIX environment
In 1976, Seymour Cray designed the Cray-1 with its iconic C-shaped silhouette to minimize cable length and maximize processing speed. The replica built in Spain reproduces this circular chassis at full scale. Instead of the original Freon-cooled circuit boards, the new internal racks house the 30 interconnected Mac minis.
Operating within a distributed computing environment that leverages the native UNIX architecture of macOS X, the 30 nodes work in parallel to deliver a total of 64 processing cores and a combined computing capacity of approximately 1.5 teraflops. Since the supercomputer is displayed in a quiet museum gallery, installing conventional mechanical fans was not feasible due to the noise. Consequently, the engineering team designed a natural convection ventilation system\u2014eliminating the need for mechanical fans\u2014by leveraging the unit’s original shape and mounting the Mac minis vertically on aluminum brackets that slide out easily on rails. In this way, the machine’s design itself acts as a thermal chimney, naturally channeling heat upwards while keeping the 30 nodes stable, accessible, and completely silent.
Seamless integration via a unified vintage-style terminal
The replica is managed from a custom-designed vintage-style terminal featuring a three-screen setup. This centralized control station offers unique technical versatility: its screens allow for the simultaneous operation of the main Mac mini cluster, a Raspberry unit dedicated to emulating classic computing environments, and a secondary cluster made up of Raspberry Pi boards. To complete the infrastructure, the console is interconnected with\u2014and directly controls\u2014two authentic Cray CX1 supercomputers (launched in 2006) running the CentOS operating system, which are part of the museum’s permanent collection.
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El Museo de Historia de la Computaci\u00f3n une medio siglo de historia tecnol\u00f3gica fabricando desde cero una reproducci\u00f3n exacta de la m\u00edtica m\u00e1quina y transformando hardware obsoleto de Apple en un cl\u00faster distribuido de 1,5 Teraflops.
Majadas de Ti\u00e9tar, Espa\u00f1a \u2014 29 de septiembre de 2026 \u2014 Con motivo del pr\u00f3ximo 50.\u00ba aniversario del nacimiento de Apple y del debut del legendario Cray-1, el Museo de Historia de la Computaci\u00f3n (base de operaciones del proyecto en Espa\u00f1a) ha presentado una espectacular r\u00e9plica a tama\u00f1o real de la obra maestra de Seymour Cray construida \u00edntegramente por el propio museo. El verdadero hito de esta obra de ingenier\u00eda reside en su interior: su cerebro inform\u00e1tico est\u00e1 impulsado por un cl\u00faster distribuido de 30 ordenadores Apple Mac mini de 2012 reutilizados.
El proyecto es el resultado de m\u00e1s de un a\u00f1o y medio de trabajos de dise\u00f1o estructural, metalurgia e ingenier\u00eda de sistemas. La iniciativa demuestra c\u00f3mo el hardware de consumo que a menudo se considera obsoleto puede tener una segunda vida \u00fatil, sirviendo en este caso para dar viabilidad t\u00e9cnica y operativa a una reproducci\u00f3n f\u00edsica del sistema que defini\u00f3 la supercomputaci\u00f3n cient\u00edfica durante la Guerra Fr\u00eda.
64 n\u00facleos de procesamiento bajo el entorno UNIX de macOS X
En 1976, Seymour Cray dise\u00f1\u00f3 el Cray-1 con su ic\u00f3nica silueta en forma de \u00abC\u00bb para acortar al m\u00e1ximo la longitud de los cables y aumentar la velocidad de procesamiento. La r\u00e9plica fabricada en Espa\u00f1a reproduce este chasis circular a escala real. En lugar de las placas de circuitos originales refrigeradas por fre\u00f3n, los nuevos racks internos albergan los 30 Mac mini interconectados.
Bajo un entorno de computaci\u00f3n distribuida que aprovecha la arquitectura UNIX nativa de macOS X, los 30 nodos funcionan en paralelo para ofrecer un total de 64 n\u00facleos de procesamiento y una capacidad de c\u00e1lculo conjunta que ronda los 1,5 Teraflops.
Dado que el supercomputador est\u00e1 expuesto en una sala silenciosa del museo, instalar ventiladores mec\u00e1nicos convencionales era inviable por el ruido. Por ello, el equipo de ingenier\u00eda dise\u00f1\u00f3 un sistema de ventilaci\u00f3n por convecci\u00f3n natural (sin ventiladores mec\u00e1nicos) aprovechando la forma original y colocando los Mac minis en posici\u00f3n vertical mediante soportes de aluminio, que son f\u00e1cilmente extra\u00edbles mediante carriles. De esta manera, el propio dise\u00f1o de la m\u00e1quina act\u00faa como una chimenea t\u00e9rmica, canalizando el calor de manera natural de abajo hacia arriba y manteniendo los 30 nodos estables, accesibles y en completo silencio.
Integraci\u00f3n total desde un terminal vintage unificado
La r\u00e9plica se gestiona desde un terminal vintage dise\u00f1ado a medida con una configuraci\u00f3n de tres pantallas. Este puesto de control centralizado despliega una versatilidad t\u00e9cnica \u00fanica: desde sus pantallas se opera simult\u00e1neamente el cl\u00faster principal de Mac mini, una unidad Raspberry dedicada a la emulaci\u00f3n de entornos inform\u00e1ticos cl\u00e1sicos y un segundo cl\u00faster compuesto por placas Raspberry Pi. Para coronar la infraestructura, la consola est\u00e1 interconectada y ejerce un control directo sobre dos supercomputadores Cray CX1 aut\u00e9nticos (lanzados en 2006) que funcionan bajo el sistema operativo CentOS y forman parte de la colecci\u00f3n permanente del museo.
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In 1978, a Cray-1 cost $8,000,000\u2014equivalent to about $40,000,000 today.
It weighed 5.5 tons.
Power output of 115 kW.
Freon-based liquid cooling system.
160 MB of memory.
It performed 160 million floating-point calculations per second; an iPhone performs 16 trillion.
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En 1978 un Cray-1 costaba 8.000.000$, que equivalen a unos 40.000.000$ actuales.
Pesaba 5 toneladas y media.
Potencia de 115 KW
Sistema de refrigeraci\u00f3n liquida con fre\u00f3n.
160 Mb de memoria
160 millones de c\u00e1lculos en coma flotante por segundo, un iphone hace 16 trillones.
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The project began with a Raspberry Pi cluster, which can still be viewed and used from a Cray-1 module.
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El proyecto comenz\u00f3 con un cl\u00faster de Raspberry pi, que todav\u00eda se pueden ver y utilizar desde un modulo del Cray-1.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Two Cray CX1 units running CentOS can be managed from the terminal on one of their screens.
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Dos Cray CX1 de 2026 con CentOS pueden ser gestionados desde el terminal en un de sus pantallas.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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The Computer History Museum bridges half a century of technological history by building an exact reproduction of the legendary machine from scratch and transforming obsolete Apple hardware into a 1.5-teraflop distributed cluster.Majadas de Ti\u00e9tar, Spain \u2014 September 29, 2026 \u2014 Marking the upcoming 50th anniversary of Apple\u2019s founding and the debut of the legendary Cray-1, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extrehard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extrehard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extrehard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extrehard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extrehard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/extrehard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70,"href":"https:\/\/extrehard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/70"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extrehard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extrehard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}