From: tcmay@sensemedia.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 95 21:29:05 PDT
To: Phil Fraering        <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Cray Computer liquidating...
Message-ID: <ac3083cd1d021004a397@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 3:32 AM 7/18/95, Phil Fraering wrote:
>According to a flier from an e-mail list I'm currently
>unwillingly subscribed to, Cray Computer is going out
>of business.
>
>Any comments and/or crypto relevance?

This is Cray Computer, not the older Cray Research.

Cray Computer was developing a GaAs-based computer that used advanced
robotic assembly/packaging. Cray Research spun off the project, led by
founder Seymour Cray, and the two companies were wholly separate. Cray
Research remained in Minnesota, while Cray Computer was located in Colorado
Springs.

The split was largely arranged because Cray Research was unwilling or
unable to fund both the conventional supercomputer lines _and_ the more
experimental machines favored by Seymour Cray. So they let Seymour and the
technology split off, and a stock distribution was arranged (I was a
shareholder of Cray Research at the time, and recall the distribution).

Cray Research is continuing to sell "Crays," including successors of the
original Cray line and various multiprocessor machines based on the Sparc
processor.

Cray Computer was trying to find customers for its Cray 3 and (planned) Cray 4.

The saga of the collapse of Cray Computer has been going on for the past
year or so, with the last several months being the final chance to
reorganize the company and keep it going. They failed, apparently, and now
the final liquidation of assets is about to happen.

Why didn't the Agency bail them out? Not clear, but my guess is that the
advanced _process_ technology of Cray Computer was not so exciting to the
NSA. The "attack of the killer micros," to use Eugene Miya's phrasing, is
wiping out most conventional advanced processor attempts to get
supercomputer speed.

When a single piece of CMOS silicon gets 200-500 MIPS, and a bunch of them
can be put together, it gets pretty hard to justify hyper-expensive GaAs or
Josephson Junction or whatever technologies.

Sad for Seymour Cray, especially as he'd been pumping some of his own
fortune into keeping Cray Computer going, but its the nature of business.
And he'll bounce back, or take a well-deserved retirement.

--Tim May

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