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Time For A Cray Comeback?

Boone^ writes "The New York Times has an article (free reg. req.) talking about Cray Inc.'s recent resurgence in the realm of supercomputing. It discusses a bit of Cray's decline when the Cold War ended, "the occupation" under SGI, and the rebirth of the company after the Tera (now Cray Inc.) purchase. Recently Cray Inc. has been shipping their vector-based Cray X1 machine, designing ASCI Red Storm, and recently was one of 3 (also Sun, IBM) to win a large DARPA contract (PDF link) to design and develop a PetaFlops machine by 2010. Could Cray Inc. be poised for a comeback? Wall Street seems to think so."

20 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Definitely coming back by Hayzeus · · Score: 2, Funny

    Naturally. We have another Bush in the Whitehouse, and I even hear the Wang Chung is making a comeback -- so why not Cray?

    1. Re:Definitely coming back by Frymaster · · Score: 4, Funny
      waitaminnit. cray - the computer of the defense industry during the colde war - is releasing a machine called the "red storm"?

      is there a secret message here? should tom ridge be called?

  2. Petaflops by 2010? by Pope+Raymond+Lama · · Score: 5, Funny

    Of course I expect that...in my Playstation IV,
    equipped with an opto-quantic Emotion Engine VI
    and a couple petabytes of holographic storage.

    --
    -><- no .sig is good sig.
  3. Re:explain by Tumbleweed · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's SUPER! Off-the-shelf components are just kind of "Meh."

  4. Re:Icon is back by Smallpond · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh yeah, real concerned. The top US supercomputer can only do 20 TFLOPS or so. That will never do.

    Imagine a beo...

  5. 2010? by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Funny

    There's a whole bunch of PETAFlops outside of McDonalds right now having a sit in and screaming about how fur is murder.

    I had to literally step on their faces to get a Big Mac.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    1. Re:2010? by taernim · · Score: 1, Funny

      Fur is murder?
      So McDonalds is selling McFur burgers then?
      Hmm... maybe we /should/ listen then...

      I don't mind meat, but I generally draw the line at eating hair... ^_^

      --
      "PC Load Letter? What the $@#% does that mean?!"
  6. Re:explain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    can someone explain to me what the benefit of a moving van is compared to buying a fleet of pintos?

  7. Re:Ha! Wall Street has more confidence in SCO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    SCO vs Nike

    Look at me, I'm a stock analyst!

  8. That's good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe now that there's once again a major player in the computer market with machine casing designs even SILLIER than Apple's, the rest of the Geek Community will give us a little slack..

  9. Re:Correct me if I'm wrong ... by Doesn't_Comment_Code · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then there's the question of ... what do you need a supercomputer for? The applications are pretty limited for a need for a petaflop computer, unless your doing mass storage, cryptography (cracking), or simulations.


    You're missing the big picture...

    Massive multiplayer Quake on a 614,400 x 819,200 screen.

    Thank you Cray.

    --

    Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
  10. I'm confused... by Tumbleweed · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why do people buy those really expensive supercomputers, when they could just buy an Apple one instead? They're much cheaper!

    1. Re:I'm confused... by Mikey-San · · Score: 3, Funny

      Because there are more games for the Cray than the Mac.

      (I'm a Mac user. I get to make this joke.)

      --
      Mikey-San
      Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
    2. Re:I'm confused... by commodoresloat · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't get it either. I've been sitting in front of this Cray supercomputer trying to copy a 17M file from one hard drive to another and it's taking forever. BBEdit has slowed to a halt....

  11. Re:explain by taradfong · · Score: 4, Funny

    You can't haul the A-Team around in a Pinto.

    --
    Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had?
  12. It's been a while since Robert Cray had a CD! by Newer+Guy · · Score: 2, Funny
    He's a great musician! It's been a long time since he had a CD released. Probably due to the RIAA cutting back on CD releases. Well, it's long over - wait....

    Oh!.... that Cray!

    Never mind!
  13. Re:Sun Enterprise 10000 by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sorry, I don't know where to get more of them. You're out of luck.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  14. Gimme by Cyno · · Score: 4, Funny

    My next couch should be a Cray..

  15. Re:explain by terrab0t · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Well, a well engineered supercomputer has much less overhead than a cluster. One superfast processor doesn't have to deal with interprocessor communications like a cluster does."

    I like the way Cray put it:

    "If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use? Two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?"
    - Seymour Cray (1925-1996), father of supercomputing


    And how about a few more Cray quotes?

    "#3 pencils and quadrille pads."
    - Seymoure Cray (1925-1996) when asked what CAD tools he used to design the Cray I supercomputer; he also recommended using the back side of the pages so that the lines were not so dominant.

    "I just bought a Mac to help me design the next Cray."
    - Seymoure Cray (1925-1996) when was informed that Apple Inc. had recently bought a Cray supercomputer to help them design the next Mac.

    I wonder what he's using now? a Palmpilot?

  16. Re:More elegant than the macs, back in the day by commodoresloat · · Score: 2, Funny
    The contemporary "elegant mac" isn't even in the same aesthetic/functional dimension as that cray machine.

    Are you saying the Cray has an extra mouse button?