Artifact Details

Title

Connection Machine (CM-2) at the "Thinking Machines" NY MOMA

Catalog Number

102738744

Type

Moving image

Description

This video explores the origin and development of The Connection Machine’s design. The 1987 Connection Machine CM-1 presented a novel approach to supercomputing: instead of adopting the traditional von Neumann architecture typical of all computers, its lead designer, Danny Hillis, modeled his machine on the human brain. He called this approach, ‘connectionist,’ and it was designed to imitate the switching behavior of biological neurons.

The machine was thus massively-parallel, suiting it to specific problems in which this architecture was a good fit. The Connection Machine’s unique hardware solution and distinctive visual appearance was designed by a team of consulting industrial designers, Gordon Bruce (interviewed here) and Alan Hawthorne, Danny Hillis and Tamiko Thiel of Thinking Machines Corporation and Ted Bilodeau, consulting mechanical engineer.

The interview was recorded at the MOMA in New York City.

Date

2018-02-21

Participants

Adkinson, Justin, Camera person
Bruce, Gordon, Interviewee

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

New York, NY

Duration

00:09:03

Format

MOV

Category

Interview

Credit

Computer History Museum

Lot Number

X8515.2018