During the 1970/80's IRCAM used mainly DEC PDP-10, VAX 11/750 and VAX 11/780 mainframe computers for developing and controlling their custom-built 4Series digital signal processors. But at the same time more general available equipment like the FPS-100 array processor were integrated and used within this environment.
Following this trend, smaller workstations made by SUN Microsytems and Apple, shifted the balance towards more portable set-ups. The subsequent appearance of the Next Cube with the Ariel soundboards and the first Silicon Graphics workstations (Indigo) ended in the beginning of the 1990's the reign of the mainframes.
However UNIX continued to be used in both the development and the performance area. Particular the machines with powerfull cpu's, like the Alpha and MIPS R10000, started to replace the Digital Signal and Array Processors, that were previously used for Vector/FFT number-crunching. In the latter part of the 1990's, multi-processing became more generally available in workstations like the SGI Octane.
It was to the extent that with the introduction of the Apple Powerbook G4 and RME Hammerfall and MOTU 828 audio-cards at the beginning of the new Millennium, one had at its disposal the amount of DSP-strength that allowed IRCAM to perform Boulez's 'Repons' with 2 laptops and 2 audio-cards.
Within the period of about 20 years, the technology has advanced from DEC mainframes with special purpose peripherals like DSP and array processors into smaller set-ups. For more specific descriptions of how this progressed onward, read also: Sogitec_4X, ISPW, Max/FTS, jMax-english.
