5 ms·

Wait, Cray is still around?

sgift 9y ago
More or less - from Wikipedia: The company's predecessor, Cray Research, Inc. (CRI), was founded in 1972 by computer designer Seymour Cray.[8] Seymour Cray went on to form the spin-off Cray Computer Corporation (CCC), in 1989, which went bankrupt in 1995, while Cray Research was bought by SGI the next year. Cray Inc. was formed in 2000 when Tera Computer Company purchased the Cray Research Inc. business from SGI and adopted the name of its acquisition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray
- beaconstudios 9y ago
  I always thought they were named after the Cray twins. Not sure why.
  - qubex 9y ago
    You'd never heard of supercomputing legend Seymour Cray?! I find that really hard to believe.
    - sgift 9y ago
      On the other hand, I hadn't heard of the Cray twins before. Each day we learn something new.
      - _asummers 9y ago
        That's partly because they're the Kray twins, though I had never heard of them before, either. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kray_twins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kray_twins
        rcv 9y ago
        The Tom Hardy movie Legend is about the Kray twins (he plays both), and is well worth watching if you haven't seen it.
        _asummers 9y ago
        I have not! Seems to be on HBO, currently. I'll check it out.
    - castis 9y ago
      Can you explain why this concept is difficult for you to believe?
      - qubex 9y ago
        Because this is Hacker News and there's so few superstar supercomputer architects (Seymour Cray, Steve Chen, Daniel Hillis) that it should be possible to recite their life stories off the top of one's head.
        castis 9y ago
        I've never heard of Steve Chen or Daniel Hills and I've been involved for about 15 years. It's absurd to expect everyone here to hold the same knowledge of the world as you.
    - throwfast1 9y ago
      https://www.xkcd.com/1053/ https://www.xkcd.com/1053/
      - qubex 9y ago
        I wasn't making fun of him. I genuinely thought he was joking.
  - DonHopkins 9y ago
    That's Cray Cray!
    - teddyh 9y ago
      From 3 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6284886 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6284886
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
pinewurst 9y ago
It's more a brand name at this point - like "Westinghouse" items sold at Target.
- jwr 9y ago
  No, not quite — their interconnects are very impressive. It's true that they don't make CPUs anymore, but that stopped making sense a long time ago. If you want to be a supercomputer company these days the value is in the interconnect and software.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - wmf 9y ago
    But most Cray systems, like the ones in this article, don't use Cray interconnects.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - jabl 9y ago
    Cray sold their interconnect IP to Intel a few years ago. But yeah, Aries is impressive.
  - inopinatus 9y ago
    Surely also in the cooling systems. I remember on my visits to the Edinburgh supercomputing center, the quip was that Cray were a refrigeration company first. Like Tesla is a battery manufacturer.
    - gbrown_ 9y ago
      That will have been for HECToR, an old XE system. They use the ECOphlex system which is a liquid evaporative phase-change cooling system using tetrafluoroethane. The current XC line of supercomputers from Cray utilize more conventional cooling methods.
tormeh 9y ago
Yes. They even have their own programming language for super-computing: http://chapel.cray.com/ http://chapel.cray.com/
skynetv2 9y ago
Cray is still the #1 supercomputer provider for US & bunch of other countries.

More or less - from Wikipedia: The company's predecessor, Cray Research, Inc. (CRI), was founded in 1972 by computer designer Seymour Cray.[8] Seymour Cray went on to form the spin-off Cray Computer Corporation (CCC), in 1989, which went bankrupt in 1995, while Cray Research was bought by SGI the next year. Cray Inc. was formed in 2000 when Tera Computer Company purchased the Cray Research Inc. business from SGI and adopted the name of its acquisition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray

beaconstudios 9y ago
I always thought they were named after the Cray twins. Not sure why.
- qubex 9y ago
  You'd never heard of supercomputing legend Seymour Cray?! I find that really hard to believe.
  - sgift 9y ago
    On the other hand, I hadn't heard of the Cray twins before. Each day we learn something new.
    - _asummers 9y ago
      That's partly because they're the Kray twins, though I had never heard of them before, either. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kray_twins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kray_twins
      - rcv 9y ago
        The Tom Hardy movie Legend is about the Kray twins (he plays both), and is well worth watching if you haven't seen it.
        _asummers 9y ago
        I have not! Seems to be on HBO, currently. I'll check it out.
  - castis 9y ago
    Can you explain why this concept is difficult for you to believe?
    - qubex 9y ago
      Because this is Hacker News and there's so few superstar supercomputer architects (Seymour Cray, Steve Chen, Daniel Hillis) that it should be possible to recite their life stories off the top of one's head.
      - castis 9y ago
        I've never heard of Steve Chen or Daniel Hills and I've been involved for about 15 years. It's absurd to expect everyone here to hold the same knowledge of the world as you.
  - throwfast1 9y ago
    https://www.xkcd.com/1053/ https://www.xkcd.com/1053/
    - qubex 9y ago
      I wasn't making fun of him. I genuinely thought he was joking.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  That's Cray Cray!
  - teddyh 9y ago
    From 3 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6284886 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6284886
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

pinewurst 9y ago

It's more a brand name at this point - like "Westinghouse" items sold at Target.

jwr 9y ago
No, not quite — their interconnects are very impressive. It's true that they don't make CPUs anymore, but that stopped making sense a long time ago. If you want to be a supercomputer company these days the value is in the interconnect and software.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- wmf 9y ago
  But most Cray systems, like the ones in this article, don't use Cray interconnects.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- jabl 9y ago
  Cray sold their interconnect IP to Intel a few years ago. But yeah, Aries is impressive.
- inopinatus 9y ago
  Surely also in the cooling systems. I remember on my visits to the Edinburgh supercomputing center, the quip was that Cray were a refrigeration company first. Like Tesla is a battery manufacturer.
  - gbrown_ 9y ago
    That will have been for HECToR, an old XE system. They use the ECOphlex system which is a liquid evaporative phase-change cooling system using tetrafluoroethane. The current XC line of supercomputers from Cray utilize more conventional cooling methods.

tormeh 9y ago

Yes. They even have their own programming language for super-computing: http://chapel.cray.com/ http://chapel.cray.com/

skynetv2 9y ago

Cray is still the #1 supercomputer provider for US & bunch of other countries.