The MasPar MP-2.

Machine type	Processor array
Models	MP2201, MP2202, MP2204, MP2208, MP2216
Front-end	DECstation 5000 or DEC VAX
Operating system	Internal OS transparent to the user, Ultrix or VMS on front-end
Connection structure	2-D mesh, crossbar (see remarks)
Compilers	MPL: (C with extensions), MPF: (Fortran 90-like with extensions)

System parameters:

Model	MP2201	MP2202	MP2204	MP2208	MP2216
Clock cycle	80 ns	80 ns	80 ns	80 ns	80 ns
No. of processors	1024	2048	4096	8192	16384
Theor. peak performance
Per proc. (Mflop/s )	0.15	0.15	0.15	0.15	0.15
Mop/s (32-bit)	4250	8500	17000	34000	68000
Mop/s (64-bit)	2100	4250	8500	17000	34000
Mflop/s (32-bit)	400	800	1600	3200	6300
Mflop/s (64-bit)	150	300	600	1200	2400
Program memory	1-4MB	1-4MB	1-4MB	1-4MB	1-4MB
Data memory	64MB	128MB	256MB	512MB	1GB
Int. comm. speed
Via Xnet (n. neighbour)	1.25 GB/s	2.5 GB/s	5.0 GB/s	10.0 GB/s	20.0 GB/s
Via global router	80 MB/s	160 MB/s	320 MB/s	640 MB/s	1.28 GB/s

Remarks: Apart from being roughly 2.5 times faster than the MasPar MP-1, there is little difference between the MP-2 and the MP-1. The gain in speed relative to the MP-1 is accomplished by using a processor with a higher degree of bit-parallelism. This resulted in a higher performance at the expense of the number of data formats: only 32-bit and 64-bit data are allowed on the MP-2.

MasPar will market both the MP-1 and MP-2. In the view of the company there is a market for both. With a fixed budget one can make a choice for a system with larger memory, but slower or a faster system with a smaller memory.

Software and tools are exactly the same for both types of machines.

Measured Performances: In [4] a speed of 1.6 Gflop/s was reported for a 16,384 processor machine in solving a 11,264 order full linear system.