The systems were developed to study the structure of elementary particles by means of lattice gauge theories, especially quantum chromodynamics.
APE ("ah-pei"), an acronym for Array Processor Experiment, was the collective name of several generations of massively parallel supercomputers since 1984, optimized for theoretical physics simulations.
The APE machines were massively parallel 3D arrays of custom computing nodes with periodic boundary conditions.
APE100 was developed at INFN in Rome and Pisa under the direction of Nicola Cabibbo.
A version of APE100 has been marketed by Alcatel Alenia Space under the name of Quadrics.