One of Seymour Cray's iconic Cray-1A supercomputers is shown at the London Science Museum. Its design is cylindrical to reduce wire lengths and features a base you can sit on.
2
of
9
James Martin/CNET
Early computers worked sequentially, processing one number at a time, but these supercomputing Cray-1 machines increased speeds by processing calculations in an assembly line formation.
3
of
9
James Martin/CNET
The Cray-1 sold for $10 million and used 115kW of power -- enough to power around 100 homes. The new supermachine was 10 times faster than other computers of the era.
4
of
9
James Martin/CNET
Cray stuffed an incredible 60 miles of wire into his Cray-1 machine. Part of the reason for the machine's cylindrical design was to reduce each wire's length to just 3 inches to minimize signal delays.
5
of
9
Stephen Shankland/CNET
A Cray-2 supercomputer from 1985 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.
6
of
9
James Martin/CNET
A Cray-2 488 MFLOPS/CPU with a memory of 512MW, seen here on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Released in 1985, each of the 27 machines made cost between $12 million and $20 million.
7
of
9
James Martin/CNET
The Cray-2 implemented an unusual cooling system that immersed dense stacks of circuit boards in a special liquid called Flourinert, which was cooled in this tank.
8
of
9
James Martin/CNET
A massive clump of wires that is a Cray-3 CPU section from the 1995-era Cray Computer Corporation. Only one of the Cray-3 machines was delivered before the company went bankrupt.
9
of
9
James Martin/CNET
In 1980, "wiring ladies" working on the Cray-1 would've worn this simple smock as they spent months inside the machines under production weaving together miles of wire to form these newest supercomputers.
Close
Discuss: Seymour Cray's path to supercomputing
Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.
Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.