The Connection Machine CM-1 "Feynman" T-shirt. Tamiko Thiel, artificial intelligence AI parallel supercomputer design

This is the t-shirt logo I designed in 1983, even before we had come up with the design for the CM-1 itself. In fact, we designed the CM-1 to look like this logo, thus making it the only supercomputer designed after a t-shirt!

The t-shirt became famous in the 1990s when Apple used a photo of Nobel physicist Richard Feynman wearing it in their "Think different" campaign. Read my article on the Design of the Connection Machine to see why he wore it!

(See also Thunko photo shoot.)

Short explanation of the logo:

• The geometric boxes and their 'hard' connections represent the 12-dimensional 'cube of cubes' that forms the internal hardware network connecting all processor chips with each other in a maximum of 12 steps. Feynman is the one who suggested this structure, and I played with the topology until I came up with this representation, which can be expanded for an infinite number of dimensions.
• The pom-poms and their 'soft' connections represent the software data structures inside the machine, which need not follow the topology of the hardware network.
• For the full story, read the chapter "Architecture of a new machine" in my article on designing the look of the Connection Machine!

A CM-2 was acquired by MoMA NY in 2016, 30 years after the first CM-1 was launched.
Here in "Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959–1989," 2017.

Colors: There are many color schemes, but I consider the 'classic' CM-1 to be:

• t-shirt: black like the machine itself
• 12-dimensional cube of cubes: yellow-gold for the hardware network
• 'pom-poms:' red like the blinking red processor status lights

Men's designs

Women's / Kids designs

Accessories