Cray-1
A vector supercomputer in a C-shaped cabinet, installed first at Los Alamos in 1976.
Seymour Cray left Control Data Corporation in 1972 to found Cray Research. The Cray-1 first went to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976. It used integrated circuits, a cooling system that pumped Freon through metal plates and a short, curved wiring layout that kept signal paths brief.
The machine's vector registers let it apply one instruction to many numbers at once, which suited scientific problems. Its peak speed was about 160 million floating-point operations per second. The base seat around the cabinet hid power supplies.
Why it matters
The Cray-1 set the model for supercomputers for a decade and made Cray Research a leader. Its style also made it a design icon.
Key facts
- First delivered in 1976 to Los Alamos.
- Peak speed about 160 megaflops.
- Weighed about 5.5 tons.
- Cooled by Freon circulating through the chassis.
Sources
- Campbell-Kelly, Martin, and William Aspray, et al. Computer: A History of the Information Machine. 3rd ed. Westview Press, 2013.
- Murray, Charles J. The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer. Wiley, 1997.
- Russell, Richard M. "The CRAY-1 Computer System." Communications of the ACM 21, no. 1 (1978).