Convex Computer

Convex Computer Corporation

Company type	Private
Industry	Computer hardware
Predecessor	Parsec
Founded	January 1, 1982 (1982-01-01), Richardson, Texas, United States
Founder	Bob Paluck, Steve Wallach
Defunct	1995 (1995)
Fate	Acquired by Hewlett-Packard
Successor	Hewlett-Packard
Headquarters	Richardson , United States
Area served	Small and medium-sized enterprises
Key people	Bob Paluck, Steve Wallach
Products	Vector minisupercomputers and supercomputers (C1, C2, C3, C4, Exemplar series)
Owner	Hewlett-Packard (after 1995)
Parent	Hewlett-Packard (after 1995)

Convex Computer Corporation was a firm dedicated to producing vector minisupercomputers and supercomputers aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises. Their later product line, the Exemplar series, which utilized Hewlett-Packard's (HP) PA-RISC processors, ultimately resulted in HP acquiring the company in 1995. The technology behind Exemplar was subsequently incorporated into HP's V-Class computer systems.

History

Established in 1982 by Bob Paluck and Steve Wallach in Richardson, Texas, Convex originally operated under the name Parsec. The company’s approach centered on offering an architecture comparable to Cray Research vector processors but with a more favorable price-to-performance ratio by leveraging widely available chip technologies instead of cutting-edge components.

The inaugural product, the C1 (released in 1985), bore resemblance to the Cray-1 but utilized slower, cost-efficient CMOS technology. To offset this, Convex enhanced the vector processing units and introduced virtual memory capabilities, which improved ease of programming. The C1 delivered approximately 20 MFLOPS in double precision and 40 MFLOPS in single precision. Convex dedicated substantial resources to developing automatic vectorizing compilers and operated a BSD-based Unix variant named ConvexOS, which included compatibility with DEC VMS through the COVUE environment.

The C2 model (introduced in 1988) featured a multiprocessor design interconnected by a crossbar switch, supporting up to four CPUs. This upgrade increased clock speeds from 10 MHz to 25 MHz and achieved 50 MFLOPS double precision performance per CPU. The C2 became Convex’s most commercially successful system.

In 1991, the C3 expanded processing capabilities to eight CPUs using GaAs FPGAs, offering performance ranging from 50 to 240 MFLOPS per CPU. However, as the market shifted towards RISC microprocessors, Convex’s independent business model faced significant challenges. Despite enhancements in the C3 and later GaAs-based C4, the company struggled with decreasing competitiveness and financial difficulties.

Convex introduced the Exemplar system in 1994—a parallel computing platform employing HP PA-7200 processors interconnected via Scalable Coherent Interconnect (SCI). Initially known as MPP or SPP-1600, this system targeted users who preferred Fortran and straightforward computational approaches over complex parallel programming paradigms. Early operating system limitations hindered performance until Convex collaborated closely with HP to port HP-UX onto Exemplar hardware.

Following HP’s acquisition of Convex in 1995, Exemplar machines were marketed as S-Class (MP) and X-Class (CC-NUMA) servers. The innovations developed for Exemplar played a vital role in shaping HP's V-Class systems running HP-UX 11.0, strengthening HP’s position within the high-performance computing sector.

External links

• Convex ex-employees website