Finished with Engines


Like a desert plain this building shell stood
made of concrete in tilt-up angles, not wood.
only nine a slender crew, we were finitely few
in our beginnings, a richness of plans beset us
none of the participants will forget us.

Named the Orca team early on
fastest fish in the ocean; a dream on our dawn.
all caught in the act of creation, a peak life adventure
a famous founding french five and a master plan
thats how our supercomputer began.

Builders in a techno-war of rendition
furious hiring 'gainst scale and times competition
we embarked on our milling and drilling of steel
while elsewhere microciruits and boards were the offing
computer jargon and tools we were quaffing.

Softly software grinds its labyrinthian feat
programmerians scarcer than argonauts teeth
waging soft wars on Orca's fake implementations
at tubes of great strength brought to their knees
by the lack of a real machine in varying degrees.

Nites and knights of silicon gene's
compiled in the truths of smaller machines
a giant created in woeful small molds
bursting from mag-tape to six inch foundries
extending acceptable chip size boundries.

Late eve assemblies mounted from scratch
quickly 'fore funding closes the hatch
hardware emerging on bated breaths spurs
fashioning the engines of science' next steps
waiting to implement Unix's greps.

Welding torches waved in the night
wire crimpers a mashers delight
to fashion fans, electrically exquisit
of hardware beginnings for Dave
Evans Christmas inaugural visit .

Sad lateness to our now foundering wafers
their own startup shelled by silicon strafers.
Contamination rampant in one micron
nits, these non-working chips nearly
for us called it quits.

Finally Hewlett and Packards sound engineering
stopped the wafer fab problem we had been fearing
and shipping in hundreds the chips rolled on in
now slapped on board surfaces
manufactued with a grin.

First operations in CPU chambers
crawling on knees of small added numbers
now one last hurdle before us abating
we had so much trouble
getting boards operating.

Bring-up was slower than three month
predilections, bringing all together on hunch
and dejection. Forging ahead
first beta's are shipped,
cheers issue forth fore wings are clipped.

It all seems so odd now
to say we were ready. How
those last days before death
our parallel machine of elegant proportions
awaited managements vascillating abortions.

'Finished with engines'; words in the casting
of old steam ships speed rings long lasting.
Tis how they rang up the engine room crew.
When a long voyage at last it had ended
that notch is what then was intended.

Three years and one hundred and fifty strong
nine lives and machines, we were rolling along.
Orders and bugs mounting by scores.
Presidents hopes foundered when aging and sick,
at ugly board meetings, removal was quick.

1990 budget then fell in line
til headquarters cut our division, guillotyne!
So echoed the halls of hi-tech dreams spent
on our MIMD machine; in the knife went.
We're 'Finished with engines!'
We're 'Finished with engines!'

We're 'Finished with engines for the last time'.



geoff fernald November 14 1989