Before diving into the key milestones, I wanted to share some context. As we’ll explore, Cray has distinguished itself from hardware companies merely chasing processing power metrics. Thanks to engineering creativity and customer focus spanning decades, Cray systems empower groundbreaking discoveries not feasible otherwise.
This guide will trace that story from the ambition of one visionary all the way to present-day exascale computing. I’ll also highlight some of Seymour Cray’s seminal systems and explain the special sauce cementing Cray’s advantage. Let‘s discover together how this Wisconsin startup grew into a high performance computing legend!
Founding the Company With One Audacious Goal
Our story begins in the tiny town of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, where a homegrown engineering prodigy named Seymour Cray launched Cray Research in 1972. Hailing from this rural community of under 15,000 residents, Cray brought Silicon Valley-level computing innovation to an unlikely spot mainly known for its breweries and paper mills.
Yet by founding his new company here rather than the coasts’ growing tech hubs, Cray attracted experienced engineers seeking relocation incentives to the pastoral setting he preferred. Early employees found ample creative freedom around Chippewa Falls‘ Twin Creeks Ranch, where the firm set up its main research facility.
Cray singularly focused the fledging company on achieving one lofty aim, etched on a bronze plaque in the ranch‘s main lobby:
"To build the world‘s most powerful computer, and thus provide mankind with the tools needed to solve his most challenging problems.”
Sure enough, Cray’s intense drive soon produced breakthrough results catapulting the young company ahead of global rivals…
Smashing Records: The Cray-1 Ushers In the Era of Supercomputing
Mere years after its formation, Cray Research shocked industry observers in 1976 by trouncing the computing competition. The revolutionary Cray-1 represented a seismic leap, outperforming all existing machines at over 3 times their speed.
With its unique letter “C” shape housing innovative circuitry and cabling, the 5-ton Cray-1 whirred along at 160 megaflops sustained performance. Priced at almost $9 million, many thought Cray couldn’t possibly sell more than 10 or 12 systems. But by optimizing for key vectors and matrices calculations, the Cray-1 won over 80 customer orders – proving scientific sites would pay for this massive increase in research potential.
| System | Release Year | Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Cray-1 | 1976 | 160 megaflops |
National labs developing nuclear weapons and modeling weather patterns ranked among early adopters. For tackling complex simulations, no alternative even approached the Cray-1’s efficiency. The supercomputer field was born, with trailblazer Seymour Cray leaving competitors in the dust.
Staying Hungry: The Quest for 1 Gigaflop Speed Spurs Further Breakthroughs
Rather than resting on plaudits for the Cray-1, Seymour Cray pursued even loftier processing heights through the late 70s and 80s. His constant drive birthed machines doubling performance every 2-3 years – a blistering rate never before seen.
While Compaq and Fujitsu wrestled for the #2 supercomputing spot, no company could match Cray’s prolific pace. Custom liquid cooling technology allowed 1985’s Cray-2 to achieve remarkable speeds within a desk-sized enclosure. By thinking far outside the box, Cray enabled researchers worldwide to link ever more intricate physics simulations near 2 gigaflops velocity.
| System | Release Year | Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Cray-1 | 1976 | 160 megaflops |
| Cray-2 | 1985 | 1.9 gigaflops |
| Cray Y-MP | 1988 | 2.6+ gigaflops |
Pioneering Scalable Architectures: Massively Parallel Processing Provides Path to Exascale
By 1993, even the blazing-fast Y-MP encountered steep computational challenges analyzing explosive genomics datasets. Seymour Cray and partners recognized harnessing networked commodity components could launch a new paradigm.
Birth of the massively parallel processing (MPP) age led to flexible, affordable designs benefiting labs without millions handy. For example, the MPP-based T3D system linked over 1000 individual microprocessors – offering lower total costs than mega-machines relying on one ultra-premium central processor.
This prophetic pivot set the template allowing reliable scaling to modern exascale capabilities. Today’s computational behemoths coordinate many thousands of nodes, but trace their MPP foundation back to innovators like Mr. Cray assessing roadmaps beyond the status quo.
Carrying the Torch Forward: Success Through Customer-Focused Software-Hardware Synergy
Tragically, Cray Research founder Seymour Cray died prematurely in a 1996 automobile accident, unable to witness achievements of systems bearing his name. By then, decades of sustained technology leadership made “Cray supercomputing” globally synonymous with research productivity and discovery – a status unthreatened through ownership changes in later years.
Silicon Graphics Inc initially acquired Cray Research during a period of financial pressures in 1996. However, realizing the brand‘s enduring value four years later, SGI reconstituted an independent Cray Inc concentrating resources fully on its supercomputing core competency. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise eventually purchased Cray Inc in 2019 for $1.3 billion – proving visionary Seymour Cray’s namesake operation only grew more essential over time.
But throughout leadership transitions, Cray preserved its vital engineering culture nurtured from the beginning. Two elements in particular cement ongoing competitive dominance, passed to new generations safeguarding Seymour Cray’s quest for ultimate speed:
Customer-Focused Hardware Design: Rather than boasting about benchmarks alone, Cray engineers tailor system architecture expressly for modelling, simulation and analysis programs critical to user productivity – not generalized workloads.
Software-Hardware Codesign: By co-developing system software components hand-in-hand with hardware advances, Cray maximizes real-world scientific application performance – not just chip speeds alone.
This fusion of complementary competencies generates immense customer loyalty even amid constant change. Let‘s examine the fruits this customer-centric philosophy bore as Cray crossed into frontier exascale territory.
New Milestone: Cray EX Series Hits Exascale Speed
Culminating Seymour Cray’s “fastest computer” vision, HPE Cray EX supercomputers shattered the exascale barrier with ease via landmark Shasta architecture. Rather than struggling to eke out incremental gains through isolated hardware updates, Shasta’s holistic approach boosted speed and scaled efficiently.
Its flexible chassis efficiently integrates over 100 compute cabinets, each powered by high-bandwidth Slingshot interconnect fabric. With mature software ecosystem support, the first Cray EX deliveries pack a walloping 1.5 exaflops speed at Oak Ridge National Lab – proving what teams focused fanatically on user applications can accomplish. Who knows what discoveries await as more researchers reap exponential EX rewards?
By mastering the delicate dance between hardware and software advances accelerating real-world use cases, Seymour Cray spawned a thriving dynasty still changing computational possibilities 50 years later. Driven by insatiable curiosity and creativity from the Wisconsin heartland to modern exascale landmarks, the pioneer‘s legacy now primes science’s next leaps.
I hope you enjoyed discovering what fuels this computing leader‘s perpetual innovation! Let me know if any other tech journey captures your fascination as much as charting Cray’s ongoing odyssey does for me.
