HWW Stuttgart NEC SX-4/32

NEC SX-4 with 32 vector processors at the University of Stuttgart computer centre, run by HWW (Hoechstleistungsrechner fuer Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft Betriebsgesellschaft mbH), Rpeak 64 GFlop/s and Rmax 61.7 GFlop/s on the system page (60.6 in the 1996-97 lists, 66.53 in June 1996). TOP500 lists it from June 1996 (rank 10) to November 1998 (rank 76) (https://www.top500.org/system/170850/). A 1996 Stuttgart bulletin on the opening of the federal high-performance computing centre (inaugurated 12 September 1996) describes the first expansion stage as this 64 GFlop/s NEC vector system, installed at the university, plus a 512-processor Cray T3E of 307 GFlop/s installed at debis in Untertuerkheim, joined by a 622 Mbit/s fibre link. It says HWW was founded in June 1995 and owned 40 percent by debis Systemhaus, 25 percent each by the University of Stuttgart and the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg and 10 percent by Porsche, and that the NEC then ranked first in Europe and eleventh worldwide (TOP500 itself shows rank 10 in June and 17 in November 1996, so the bulletin's figure is a different snapshot). NEC's chairman is quoted there as describing it as a 32-processor SX-4. It is the vector-side predecessor of the later hlrs-nec-sx8 line. The exact in-service date was not available from a fetched page, so only the year is given.