abstract:Minisupercomputers constituted a short-lived class of computers that emerged in the mid-1980s, characterized by the combination of vector processing and small-scale multiprocessing. As scientific computing using vector processors became more popular, the need for lower-cost systems that might be used at the departmental level instead of the corporate level created an opportunity for new computer vendors to enter the market.
Snyder, who spent four years on turbine engines at a Cat subsidiary, ran dozens of two- and three-week-long simulations on a minisupercomputer, crunching 10 million equations each time, to design a new nozzle that would turn insulin into the right-size droplets.