Cray T3E

Like the previous Cray T3D, it was a fully distributed memory machine using a 3D torus topology interconnection network.

The T3E initially used the DEC Alpha 21164 (EV5) microprocessor and was designed to scale from 8 to 2,176 Processing Elements (PEs).

Each PE had between 64 MB and 2 GB of DRAM and a 6-way interconnect router with a payload bandwidth of 480 MB/s in each direction.

[1] After Cray Research was acquired by Silicon Graphics in February 1996, development of new Alpha-based systems was stopped.

While providing the -900, -1200 and -1200E upgrades to the T3E, in the long term Silicon Graphics intended Cray T3E users to migrate to the Origin 3000, a MIPS-based distributed shared memory computer, introduced in 2000.