Prime Computer Inc’s minisupercomputer partner Cydrome Inc – in which the Natick minimaker has a significant minority equity investement – has launched new software to aid the integration of engineering and scientific workstations with the Cydra 5 distributed dataflow minisupercomputer, which is marketed in Europe by Prime. The Milpitas, California firm says that Teamware enables users of Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics design systems to access the simulation resources of the Cydra 5, and the product range includes the Cydrix Cross-Environment, Cross-Fortran 77, and X/Window. Working under the workstation’s windowing system, Cydrix Cross-Environment provides transparent access to Cydra 5 execution resources, so that users can compile a program locally with Cross-Fortran, execute it on the Cydra 5, and view the results at the workstation, with all network transfers managed automatically. In addition to Ethernet with TCP/IP protocols, Cydrome’s networking support now includes DECnet, Sun’s Network File System, AT&T’s Remote File System, and MXLink. The Cydrix 5.3 supports multiple user interfaces, including the VAX/VMS VCL interface, and PShell from Prime’s Primos operating system. In a separate announcement, Cydrome says it has an agreement with Informix Software Inc to make its database products available on the Cydra 5. The Cydra 5 is currently primarily a Fortran engine, but Cydrome is aiming to broaden the appeal of the beast with a wider range of software tools and applications. The data management, retrieval, and reporting capabilities of the package are well suited to engineering and scientific requirements, according to Cydrome vice-president Robert Hesser. Cydrome has reportedly now shipped 15 of the 64-bit machines, but five were for internal use at Prime.
