[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-museum-rebuilds-1976-cray-1-using-30-old-mac-minis":10,"sections":46},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":35,"tags":36,"sources":41,"feedback":45,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":45,"total_tokens":45},11442,"museum-rebuilds-1976-cray-1-using-30-old-mac-minis","Museum Rebuilds 1976 Cray-1 Using 30 Old Mac Minis","A Spanish museum linked 30 old Mac Minis into a working Cray-1 replica that now outperforms the 1976 original by thousands of times.","A Spanish museum rebuilt the 1976 Cray-1 supercomputer using 30 old Mac Minis, and the tribute now beats the original.\n\nThe Museo de Historia de la Computación in Spain wired together 30 Mac Minis from 2012 to 2014: five quad-core i7s and 25 dual-core i5s, 70 cores in all, running macOS Mojave and splitting tasks over MPI. In testing, the cluster hit 1.5 teraflops. The machines sit inside a replica of the Cray-1's distinctive C-shaped cabinet, cooled by rising hot air instead of fans, so the loudest thing in the room is a pair of gigabit Ethernet switches humming at about 30 decibels. A retro-styled terminal runs the show, combining a Raspberry Pi that emulates vintage environments, a Raspberry Pi cluster, Cray CX1 units running CentOS, and a Mac Mini coordinating the whole setup.\n\nThat 1.5 teraflops figure is the real punchline. The original Cray-1 topped out around 160 megaflops, meaning a pile of decade-old consumer hardware now outruns the machine that once defined supercomputing, by close to 10,000 times. It is a tidy illustration of how far commodity computing has traveled since 1976, built to mark the Cray-1's 50th anniversary.\n\nThe museum is not done showing off. It is crowdfunding 80 M4 Mac Minis to try to land a spot on the Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers, using the same mass-market boxes sitting under millions of office monitors. Cray would probably find that funny.","[\"supercomputing\",\"retro-computing\",\"mac-mini\",\"cray\"]","2026-10-13T09:46:31.000Z","2026-10-13T10:48:10.015Z","2026-10-13T10:48:13.305Z","published",null,[24,30],{"id":25,"reviewer":26,"round":27,"reason":28,"status":29},"editor-r1","editor",1,"Drop or source the claim that Cray built 'only about 80' original Cray-1 units — that figure appears nowhere in the source material and must be removed or backed up with a citation.","resolved",{"id":31,"reviewer":32,"round":33,"reason":34,"status":29},"publisher-r2","publisher",2,"The article states the terminal pairs two 2006 Cray CX1 units, but the Cray CX1 was not introduced until 2008, making this a factual error.","hardware",[37,38,39,40],"supercomputing","retro-computing","mac-mini","cray",[42],{"name":43,"url":44},"PCGamer","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pcgamer.com\u002Fhardware\u002Fmuseum-strings-together-30-old-mac-minis-for-replica-of-most-successful-supercomputer-builds-something-more-powerful-than-the-original\u002F",0,{"sections":47},[48,53,58,63,68,72,77,82,87,92,97,102,107,112],{"name":49,"slug":50,"count":51,"latest_published_at":52},"AI","ai",6983,"2026-10-13T12:47:41.000Z",{"name":54,"slug":55,"count":56,"latest_published_at":57},"Security","security",963,"2026-10-13T08:34:12.000Z",{"name":59,"slug":60,"count":61,"latest_published_at":62},"Policy","policy",501,"2026-10-13T12:15:53.000Z",{"name":64,"slug":65,"count":66,"latest_published_at":67},"Deals","deals",496,"2026-10-13T13:00:00.000Z",{"name":69,"slug":35,"count":70,"latest_published_at":71},"Hardware",245,"2026-10-13T11:02:39.000Z",{"name":73,"slug":74,"count":75,"latest_published_at":76},"Science","science",199,"2026-10-13T12:01:37.000Z",{"name":78,"slug":79,"count":80,"latest_published_at":81},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",196,"2026-10-13T13:00:04.000Z",{"name":83,"slug":84,"count":85,"latest_published_at":86},"Startups","startups",123,"2026-10-13T10:32:23.000Z",{"name":88,"slug":89,"count":90,"latest_published_at":91},"Software","software",116,"2026-10-12T19:00:00.000Z",{"name":93,"slug":94,"count":95,"latest_published_at":96},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",115,"2026-10-13T10:27:00.000Z",{"name":98,"slug":99,"count":100,"latest_published_at":101},"General","general",73,"2026-10-13T13:11:33.000Z",{"name":103,"slug":104,"count":105,"latest_published_at":106},"Gaming","gaming",63,"2026-10-12T20:59:50.000Z",{"name":108,"slug":109,"count":110,"latest_published_at":111},"Reviews","reviews",35,"2026-10-12T14:00:00.000Z",{"name":113,"slug":114,"count":115,"latest_published_at":116},"How-To","how-to",8,"2026-10-05T09:00:00.000Z"]