View source for Floating Point Systems

{{Short description|American computer hardware manufacturer (1970–1991)}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Floating Point Systems, Inc.
| logo = Floating Point Systems logo.svg
| type = 
| industry = Computer systems and components
| founded = {{Start date and age|1970}}
| defunct = {{End date|1991}}
| fate = Acquired by [[Cray]]
| successor = Cray Research Superservers
| key_people = [[Norm Winningstad]], founder and CEO
| products = 
}}
'''Floating Point Systems, Inc.''' ('''FPS'''), was a [[Beaverton, Oregon]] vendor of attached [[array processor]]s and [[minisupercomputer]]s. The company was founded in 1970 by former [[Tektronix]] engineer [[Norm Winningstad]],<ref name="pbj">{{cite news|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2010/11/25/norm-winningstad-dies-at-age-85.html|title=Norm Winningstad dies at age 85|last=Smith|first=Rob|date=November 25, 2010|work=[[Portland Business Journal]]|access-date=2 December 2010}}</ref> with partners Tom Prints, Frank Bouton and Robert Carter.  Carter was a salesman for [[Data General]] Corp. who persuaded Bouton and Prince to leave Tektronix to start the new company.  Winningstad was the fourth partner.<ref>G.B. Dodds, C.E. Wollner & M.M. Lee, ''The Silicon Forest'', Oregon Historical Society Press, 1990, p 46-55.</ref>

== History==
The original goal of the company was to supply economical, but high-performance, [[floating-point]] [[coprocessor]]s for [[minicomputer]]s.  In 1976, the ''[[FPS AP-120B|AP-120B]]'' [[vector processor|array processor]] was produced.  This was soon followed by a unit for larger systems and [[IBM]] mainframes, the [[FPS AP-190]]. In 1981, the follow-on ''FPS-164'' was produced, followed by the FPS-264, which had the same architecture.  This was five times faster, using [[Emitter-coupled logic|ECL]] instead of [[Transistor-transistor logic|TTL]] chips.

These processors were widely used as attached processors for scientific applications in [[reflection seismology]], [[physical chemistry]], [[NSA]] [[cryptology]] and other disciplines requiring large numbers of computations. Attached array processors were usually used in facilities where larger [[supercomputer]]s were either not needed or not affordable. Hundreds if not thousands of FPS boxes were delivered and highly regarded. FPS's primary competition up to this time was IBM (3838 array processor) and CSP Inc.

[[Cornell University]], led by physicist [[Kenneth G. Wilson]], made a supercomputer proposal to NSF with IBM to produce a processor array of FPS boxes attached to an IBM mainframe with the name ''lCAP''.

=== Parallel processing ===
In 1986, the ''T-Series'' [[Multiple instruction, multiple data#Hypercube interconnection network|hypercube]] computers using [[INMOS]] [[transputer]]s and [[Weitek]] [[floating-point]] processors was introduced. The T stood for "[[Tesseract]]". Unfortunately, parallel processing was still in its infancy and the software tools and libraries for the T-Series did not facilitate customers' parallel programming.  I/O was also difficult, so the T-Series was discontinued, a mistake costing tens of millions of dollars that was nearly fatal to FPS. A few dozen T-series were delivered.

=== Celerity acquisition; acquisition by Cray ===
In 1988, FPS acquired the assets of [[Celerity Computing]] of [[San Diego, California]], renaming itself as '''FPS Computing'''. Celerity's product lines were further developed by FPS, the [[Celerity 6000]] [[minisupercomputer]] being developed into the ''FPS Model 500'' series.

FPS was acquired by [[Cray]] in 1991 for $3.25 million, and their products became the ''[[Cray S-MP|S-MP]]'' and ''APP'' product lines of [[Cray Research]].<ref name="obit">{{cite news|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/11/post_49.html|last=Tobias|first=Lori|author2=Mike Rogoway |author3=Richard Read |title=Norm Winningstad, high-tech pioneer and philanthropist in Oregon, dies at 85|date=November 24, 2010|work=[[The Oregonian]]|access-date=1 December 2010}}</ref>

The S-MP was a [[SPARC]]-based [[multiprocessor]] server (based on the Model 500); the MCP a matrix co-processor array based on eighty-four [[Intel i860]] processors. After Cray purchased FPS, it changed the group's direction by making them ''Cray Research Superservers, Inc.'', later becoming the '''Cray Business Systems Division''' (Cray BSD). The MCP was renamed the [[Cray APP]]. The S-MP architecture was not developed further. Instead, it was replaced by the ''[[Cray CS6400|Cray Superserver 6400]]'', (CS6400), which was derived indirectly from a collaboration between [[Sun Microsystems]] and [[Xerox PARC]].

=== Acquisition by SGI and Sun ===
[[Silicon Graphics]] acquired Cray Research in 1996, and shortly afterward the Cray BSD business unit along with the CS6400 product line was sold to Sun Microsystems for an undisclosed amount, acknowledged later by a Sun executive to be "significantly less than $100 million",<ref>{{cite press release
  |title= Sun Microsystems announces intent to purchase Cray Business Systems Division
  |publisher= Sun Microsystems
  |date= May 17, 1996
  |url= http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sun+Microsystems+Announces+Intent+to+Purchase+Cray+Business+Systems...-a018293601
  |access-date= March 20, 2011
  |archive-date= October 23, 2012
  |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121023113441/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sun+Microsystems+Announces+Intent+to+Purchase+Cray+Business+Systems...-a018293601
  |url-status= dead
  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news
 | author1 = Lisa DiCarlo 
 | title = Sun's Purchase Of Cray's Unix Server Business
 | url = https://www.forbes.com/2002/05/06/0506sun.html#67fc068a6a5e
 | work = [[Forbes]]
 | date = 2002-05-06
 | access-date = 2019-01-24
}}</ref> and estimated to be as low as ${{Format price|17000000}}.<ref name="chm-nov2021"/>{{rp|pages=22}} Sun was then able to bring to market the follow-on to the CS6400 which Cray BSD was developing at the time, codenamed ''Starfire'', launching it as the [[Sun Enterprise 10000|Ultra Enterprise 10000]] [[multiprocessor]] server. Sun reportedly sold 7,000 of these systems priced at around ${{Format price|1000000}}, generating "five billion plus of margin".<ref name="chm-nov2021">{{cite interview |last=Masters |first=Clark |interviewer=Uday Kapoor |title=Oral History of Clark Masters |work=Computer History Museum |date=18 November 2021 |location=Escondido, California |url=https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2022/02/102792300-05-01-acc.pdf |access-date=30 July 2025}}</ref>{{rp|pages=11}} This system was followed by the [[Sun Fire 15K]] and Sun Fire 25K. These systems allowed Sun to become a first tier vendor in the large server market. In January 2010, [[Sun acquisition by Oracle|Sun was acquired by Oracle Corporation]].

== See also ==
* [[Glen Culler]]
* [[Cydrome]]
* [[Multiflow]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://djcoregon.com/news/2008/08/19/groundbreaking-in-hillsboro-for-kaiser-permanente-clinic-in-1986/ 1986 news about FPS] - ''Daily Journal of Commerce''
* [http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Parallel.html The History of the Development of Parallel Computing]
* Howard Thrailkill [http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft0f59n73z;chunk.id=d0e15843;doc.view=print FPS Computing: A History of Firsts]
* [[Gordon Bell]]. [http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/Supers/Supercomputing-A_Brief_History_1965_2002.htm "A Brief History of Supercomputing"]

{{FormerORCompanies}}

[[Category:1970 establishments in Oregon]]
[[Category:1991 disestablishments in Oregon]]
[[Category:1991 mergers and acquisitions]]
[[Category:American companies established in 1970]]
[[Category:American companies disestablished in 1991]]
[[Category:Beaverton, Oregon]]
[[Category:Computer companies established in 1970]]
[[Category:Computer companies disestablished in 1991]]
[[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:Electronics companies established in 1970]]
[[Category:Electronics companies disestablished in 1991]]
[[Category:Floating point]]