{"id":15,"date":"2025-06-07T16:51:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T16:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/?p=15"},"modified":"2025-10-01T18:47:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T18:47:51","slug":"thinking-machines-connection-machine-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/?p=15","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Machines Connection Machine 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1098-Large.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1098-Large.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-370\" style=\"width:411px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1098-Large.jpeg 1280w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1098-Large-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1098-Large-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1098-Large-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1098-Large-600x450.jpeg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Thinking Machines Connection Machine 2 (CM-2)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/?donate\">Preservation of this artifact is made possible through a donation from the Amara Foundation<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Introduced:<\/strong>&nbsp;1987<br><strong>Manufacturer:<\/strong>&nbsp;Thinking Machines Corporation (Founded by Danny Hillis and Sheryl Handler)<br><strong>Architecture:<\/strong>&nbsp;Massively parallel SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Principal Designers &amp; Contributors<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Danny Hillis<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Chief architect; conceived the Connection Machine as his MIT PhD project<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Brewster Kahle<\/strong> \u2013 Lead engineer; Designed the CM to be capable of processing &#8220;Big Data&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Bill Dally<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Designed the router and interconnection network architecture<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Russell Taylor<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Led system logic and VLSI implementation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Guy L. Steele Jr.<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Led the development of StarLisp parallel programming environment<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tamiko Thiel<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Lead industrial designer; created the iconic CM-2 enclosure<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Howard Resnikoff<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 VP of Research; contributed to overall system strategy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ted Bilodeau<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Mechanical design engineer for system chassis and internal structure<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Allen Hawthorne<\/strong>&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<strong>Gordon Bruce<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Industrial design consultants<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Richard Feynman<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Consulting physicist; advised on memory access and routing efficiency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Danny Hillis<\/strong>&nbsp;is a computer scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur best known as the visionary behind the&nbsp;<strong>Connection Machine<\/strong>, one of the earliest and most ambitious attempts at building a&nbsp;<strong>massively parallel computer<\/strong>. While completing his Ph.D. at MIT under Marvin Minsky, Hillis proposed an architecture that could harness tens of thousands of simple processors working in unison \u2014 an idea that led directly to the development of the&nbsp;<strong>CM-1<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>CM-2<\/strong>&nbsp;at&nbsp;<strong>Thinking Machines Corporation<\/strong>, which he co-founded in 1983. As the chief architect, Hillis guided both the hardware and software design, blending innovative networking strategies with a striking physical form. Beyond the Connection Machine, Hillis went on to make significant contributions in diverse fields, from data visualization at Walt Disney Imagineering to long-term thinking with the Long Now Foundation. His work continues to influence modern computing, particularly in the realms of parallelism and distributed systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;<strong>Connection Machine 2 (CM-2)<\/strong>&nbsp;was a groundbreaking parallel supercomputer developed by&nbsp;<strong>Thinking Machines Corporation<\/strong>. It extended the capabilities of its predecessor, the CM-1, by incorporating enhanced floating-point performance, more memory, and greater flexibility for scientific and artificial intelligence applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CM-2 could support up to&nbsp;<strong>65,536 one-bit processors<\/strong>, arranged in a&nbsp;<strong>hypercube interconnect<\/strong>. Each processor had 4 kilobits of RAM and could be paired with a&nbsp;<strong>Weitek 32-bit floating-point unit<\/strong>, dramatically increasing its usefulness for numerical computations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Designed under the SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) model, the Connection Machine CM-2 executed the same instruction across thousands of processors simultaneously, making it ideal for applications in physics simulations, machine learning, and image processing. It relied on a Symbolics Lisp Machine as a front-end, using a custom parallel dialect of Lisp developed at Thinking Machines known as&nbsp;<em>StarLisp<\/em>, with development led by Guy L. Steele.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CM-2 was deployed at elite institutions like Los Alamos National Laboratory, MIT, and NASA, and remains a landmark in the history of parallel computing and design.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1139-Large.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1139-Large-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1139-Large-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1139-Large-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1139-Large-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1139-Large-600x450.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1139-Large.jpeg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Connection Machine sn00257 formerly at John Whitney U.S. Animation, Hollywood, CA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2792-Large.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2792-Large-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17\" style=\"width:552px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2792-Large-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2792-Large-600x450.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2792-Large-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2792-Large-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2792-Large.jpeg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our CM-2 was built out with a single quadrant for which we have a complete card cage and backplane. Because of this we designed to build out programmable LED boards similar to how it was done for the <a href=\"https:\/\/moma.org\">https:\/\/moma.org<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/mimmsmuseum.org\">https:\/\/mimmsmuseum.org<\/a> CM-2s. Since the display was programmable with a few different styles including a somewhat authentic display, we created an exhibit called CMY2K which featured the CM-2 has a countdown clock to the 20th anniversary of Y2K. Additionally it was sync&#8217;ed with NIST WWV including time code audio.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/P1090686-Large.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/P1090686-Large-1024x576.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/P1090686-Large-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/P1090686-Large-600x338.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/P1090686-Large-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/P1090686-Large-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/P1090686-Large.jpeg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A key figure in the&nbsp;development of the CM-1\/CM-2\u2019s visual presence&nbsp;was&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tamikothiel.com\/cm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tamiko Thiel<\/a><\/strong>, the&nbsp;<strong>product designer and lead artist<\/strong>&nbsp;responsible for the machine\u2019s striking physical design. Her work gave the CM-2 its iconic appearance: a&nbsp;<strong>black cube<\/strong>&nbsp;with a glowing red interior, created by illuminating thousands of LEDs connected to the processors. These lights visually reflected the computer\u2019s activity, turning the machine into a dynamic sculpture that merged computational function with aesthetic form. Thus it represented the power and mystery of parallel computation, helping to establish the Connection Machine not just as a tool of science but also as a symbol of the emergent intelligence from networks of simple units\u2014a vision echoing both biological systems and futuristic machines.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2872-Large.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"842\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2872-Large-842x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26\" style=\"width:581px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2872-Large-842x1024.jpeg 842w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2872-Large-600x730.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2872-Large-247x300.jpeg 247w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2872-Large-768x934.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2872-Large.jpeg 1052w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 842px) 100vw, 842px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>A board from our CM-2<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2579-2-Large-1.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"738\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2579-2-Large-1-738x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66\" style=\"width:583px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2579-2-Large-1-738x1024.jpeg 738w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2579-2-Large-1-600x833.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2579-2-Large-1-216x300.jpeg 216w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2579-2-Large-1-768x1066.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2579-2-Large-1.jpeg 922w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 738px) 100vw, 738px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This Symbolics LISP Machine (<em>to the right of the DECSYSTEM-2020 known as MIT-AI.ARPA<\/em>) served as the front end to our CM-2.  It is currently in restoration with a working FEP and a Fujitsu Eagle SMD disk drive which contains a StarLisp world.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/abb8eddb5159c73f.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"790\" src=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/abb8eddb5159c73f-1024x790.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-82\" style=\"width:611px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/abb8eddb5159c73f-1024x790.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/abb8eddb5159c73f-600x463.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/abb8eddb5159c73f-300x232.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/abb8eddb5159c73f-768x593.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/abb8eddb5159c73f-1536x1186.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/abb8eddb5159c73f.jpeg 1639w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The back of the Symbolics 3670 features a bulkhead for connections to peripherals, network, color video and the Thinking Machines H BUS interface for the Connection Machine.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/b63a9a1b7a736a53.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/b63a9a1b7a736a53-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-84\" style=\"width:611px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/b63a9a1b7a736a53-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/b63a9a1b7a736a53-600x450.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/b63a9a1b7a736a53-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/b63a9a1b7a736a53-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/b63a9a1b7a736a53-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/b63a9a1b7a736a53.jpeg 1663w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Symbolics 3670&#8217;s console keyboard along with a Symbolics Inc. &#8220;We&#8217;re Number 1&#8221; t-shirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the moment, the Thinking Machines Connection Machine 2 is safely in storage.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7069-Large.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7069-Large-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20\" style=\"width:616px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7069-Large-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7069-Large-600x450.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7069-Large-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7069-Large-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7069-Large.jpeg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Support for the preservation of the CM-2 is made possible through our <a href=\"https:\/\/icm.museum\/?donate\">Sponsor a Computer<\/a> program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thinking Machines Connection Machine 2 (CM-2) Preservation of this artifact is made possible through a donation from the Amara Foundation. Introduced:&nbsp;1987Manufacturer:&nbsp;Thinking Machines Corporation (Founded by Danny Hillis and Sheryl Handler)Architecture:&nbsp;Massively parallel SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) Principal Designers &amp; Contributors Danny Hillis&nbsp;is a computer scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur best known as the visionary behind the&nbsp;Connection&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[13,15,16,14],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cm-2","category-sponsor-a-computer","tag-cm-2","tag-connection-machine","tag-tamiko-thiel","tag-thinking-machines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376,"href":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icm.museum\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}