Seymour Cray's legendary supercomputer legacy
We seem to have supercomputers in our pockets. Endless applications and experiences with computing power that match today’s desktops. But considering the power of a real supercomputer, smartphones suddenly pale in comparison. You can find supercomputers that solve some serious problems in the following fields:
- Quantum mechanics
- Weather forecast
- Molecular modeling
- Oil and natural gas exploration
- Physical simulation
Whether it is used for cars, energy, or to explain the origin of our universe, supercomputers seem to be able to do it. Unlike our smartphones and computers, supercomputers are made up of tens of thousands of CPUs and thousands of GB of RAM. All of these speeds are not measured in typical Gigahertz. A supercomputer is measured by how many floating point operations can be performed per second, called a trigger.
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The continued progress of supercomputers can be attributed to a man who is considered by many to be the father of supercomputers, Seymour Clay. As former HP CTO Joel Birnbaum said:
"It seems impossible to exaggerate his impact on the industry; when Seymour envisions them, many of the things high-performance computers do now are on the brink of trust. Seymour combines modesty, dedication and talent with vision and entrepreneurship to put him at a high position among great inventors in any field. He is on the way to create industries with Edison and Bell."
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early
Seymour The story begins with many other famous electrical engineers. He was fascinated by electronics since he was a child, and Cray said he spent as much time as possible in the school’s electrical engineering lab. After high school, Clay used his talent in the U.S. Army electrical engineering as a member of the Communications Platoon.
Seymour's first supercomputing journey began with Engineering Research Associates (ERA). It was here that he began to study various computer technologies, from vacuum tubes to transistors and magnetic amplifiers.
Cray's daughter Susan Cray-Borman remembers her father was a very focused and lonely person. She often finds him hovering over a graph paper with sharpened pencils, solving some challenging engineering problems in a quiet space. Other colleagues described Seymour’s ingenuity, knowing when the perfect balance of design simplicity has been reached and where to stop.
The video below learns Seymour’s contribution and personality from family and colleagues:
Clay went through several management transitions and mergers during ERA and expressed his dissatisfaction with the corporate culture. Later, he worked with ERA founder William C. Norris, and the two left the company to form Control Data Corporation (CDC).
Advances in Supercomputers
957 Cray and his team released CDC 1604, the world's first fully transistorized supercomputer that works without a vacuum tube. A few years later, Cray launched the CDC 6600. The $7 million machine touts the world's fastest clock speed, 100 nanoseconds. It is also the first supercomputer to use Freon to prevent its electronic components from overheating. The CDC later released a series of successful supercomputers, including the 1968 CDC 7600 and the 1970 CDC 8600.
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In CDC, Seymour continues to fight with his business partners. When William Norris asked Clay about CDC’s five-year business plan, he replied:
“Five-year goal: build the world’s largest computer. One-year goal: achieve one-fifth of the above.”
situation escalated to Seymour convinced Norris to move his lab to Minneapolis, more than 100 miles away.It is conceivable that Clay needs to be in creative work that conflicts with a busy office environment.
Cray decided to start a new business adventure in 1975, Cray Research. It is here that Seymour developed Cray-1, which is not an ordinary supercomputer. This machine completely replaces transistors with integrated circuits and introduces a new technology called vector processing.
vector processing basically allows Cray's supercomputers to execute instruction sets that operate on one-dimensional arrays of data. This technology improves system performance compared to traditional scalar processing techniques used in other supercomputers. The use of integrated circuits also enabled Cray's machine to reach a speed of 136 mega-float.
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Cray-1 is not only its amazing speed, but also its elegant design.
View most computers and you will see the bland changes in the black and white boxes. Cray wanted to do something different with Cray-1, so he designed his supercomputer to the shape of the letter C. It looks like something from an episode of Star Trek.
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Cray-1's shape is not just for brand purposes. This unique configuration allows speed-related modules to be installed closer and wire lengths shorter. It is well known that shorter wire lengths can lead to faster transmission time for electrical signals.
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There is also a mat around the supercomputer, which contains a power supply and air conditioning unit. This mat not only holds hardware, but also makes the maintenance technician as comfortable as possible when repairing the machine. Seymour not only designed a supercomputer, but also designed a complete physical experience. When Cray-1 was released in 1977 for $8.8 million, it earned the nickname “the most expensive double sofa in the world.”
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Kray introduced many other subtle improvements in almost all of his supercomputers. For example, the CDC 7600 shown in the picture below is decorated with blue glass doors and walnut. Seymour uniquely combines outstanding performance and unique aesthetics, making his supercomputer a masterpiece of engineering art.
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Cray-1 has been commercially successful, and Seymour continues to drive progress in the field of supercomputing over the next two decades. In 1985, Cray Research released Cray-2. This beast packs the components so tightly that it requires a liquid Fluorinert to prevent the components from overheating. It is also the first supercomputer to break the gigaflops cap, reaching 1.9 gigaflops.
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Seymour will continue his passion for the development of Cray-3 supercomputer, and Cray-3 never saw the commercial success it seeks. This may be due to Seymour's experiments using gallium arsenide-treated chips instead of silicon. After the failure of Cray 3, Seymour founded Cray Computer Corporation (CCC) in 1989. It was here that he worked behind closed doors and developed the Cray 4, but it never appeared.
Sadly, Seymour died of injuries in a car accident on October 5, 1996.
The legacy of the legend
Seymour Cray is an innovator in the supercomputer field. His development helped drive the industry forward and he always focused on solving engineering problems in the easiest way. With a unique combination of dense components and unique aesthetic design, Cray supercomputers are far ahead of their time.
Seymour's supercomputer design still ranks first among the most powerful supercomputers, and this man's legacy has not been forgotten by history. In 1997, IEEE established the Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award in recognition of innovative contributions to high-performance computing. May we continue to work hard on his achievements!
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