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 .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@sensemedia.net | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-728-0152 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Corralitos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."