Bull chips

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Pecoralessa65



Joined: 26 Oct 2014
Posts: 4
Location: Italy

PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:44 am    Post subject: Bull chips Reply with quote

Hi all

I'm an Italian collector, i have found this 4 beauty but i cant find a lot on google..

There is a little almost invisible sign "Bull" printed

is the left piece an unknown CPU not listed?

Bye and Tx

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aberco



Joined: 05 Sep 2013
Posts: 2655
Location: Paris France

PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did some research ago, and they are part of a Bull DPS9000 mainframe computer.

The CPU can be either Jupiter or Auriga, and was the largest transistor count of it's age. It was the last custom Bull design before they contracted IBM and transferred their server architecture to PowerPC and RS64.
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aberco



Joined: 05 Sep 2013
Posts: 2655
Location: Paris France

PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I will copy my reply from this thread:
http://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22302&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc

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I have an answer, this is a Jupiter CPU from a BULL DPS9000 mainframe computer. A very rare and unusual architecture that started like PA-Risc as discrete logic then multichip CPU. The latest multichip CPU from BULL, the Auriga, was updated to the single chip Auriga2.

Auriga:
http://www.feb-patrimoine.com/PROJET/gcos7/auriga/auriga.htm

Auriga2:
http://www.feb-patrimoine.com/PROJET/gcos7/artemis/artemis.htm

Then the architecture was improved to what was the most advanced CPU at the time, with the largest transistor count: Jupiter. Then BULL made contract with IBM to develop a line of servers based on the Power architecture and ended its DPS mainframe series.

Quote:
Jupiter (1995-1997)
After the finalization of the Auriga 2 project, that regrouped 4 DPS-7 processors on a single board to build a computer with up to 24 processors, and after the failure of supplying NEC with a XSA version of Auriga 2, the Les Clayes design team was becoming idle and was proposed to build a DPS-9000 version of the Auriga 2 system. This project was code-named Jupiter.
Formally announced in April 97, Jupiter was christened DPS-9000/700 with a maximum 8xSMP configuration at 45 Mips per processor.
 
The processor chip of Jupiter is one of the most integrated of its time, it includes 7.3 million transistors


The Auriga2 has 7 rows of pins while Jupiter has 6 rows (like on the CPU on sale on eBay).



I brought the 2 remaining ones from the seller but before shipping he told me that the markings were not "CPU" on the unit he had left but rather "CSD" and "CSA" (data/adress cache?). I asked him for a refund. Beware that he just have support chip left. For those of you that got the CPU, keep it preciously this is a really cool part of french mainframe history!
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