Imagine you asked me, an experienced data analyst and longtime tech enthusiast, to explain the inspiring history of Cray supercomputers. Where would I start?
First, an overview. For over 40 years, Cray has defined the cutting edge of speed and computational power. Their story began in the 1970s when a brilliant engineer named Seymour Cray left Control Data Corporation to found Cray Research. His vision? To create the world‘s fastest computers, eclipsing anything made before.
Cray succeeded spectacularly. Breakthrough systems like 1976‘s Cray-1 and 1985‘s Cray-2 smashed performance records, cementing Cray‘s dominance through the 1980s. A shift to commercial and parallel supercomputing models in the 90s preceded Cray‘s acquisition by HPE in 2019. Today, as an HPE subsidiary, Cray continues ushering in new milestones like the first US exascale computing platforms.
Now, let‘s explore some of Cray‘s pivotal innovations that cemented their fame as trailblazers of high performance computing…
Cray-1 Debuts: The First Cray Supercomputer
When Seymour Cray left CDC to found Cray Research in 1972, expectations were sky-high for his first namesake supercomputer. The 1976 Cray-1 more than delivered – a genuine sensation boasting 160 megaflops for the fastest speed in the world by far.
But the Cray-1 wasn‘t just a number. Its very design was revolutionary. Earlier systems relied on separate input/output (I/O) processors to handle data flow. In contrast, the Cray-1 integrated both I/O and processing units in one compact chassis shaped like a "C" to enable swift communication between components. The result? Up to 12 times the throughput of competitors like the CDC 7600.
| System | Year | Speed (megaflops) |
|---|---|---|
| CDC 7600 | 1969 | 36 |
| Cray-1 | 1976 | 160 |
With its showstopping performance and radical topology, it‘s no wonder over 80 Cray-1 models sold globally despite the multi-million dollar price tag. National laboratories raced to acquire Cray‘s new machine to model physics experiments and run aerodynamic simulations beyond existing technology limitations.
Cray X-MP – Flexibility Through Multi-Processing
Given the success of his first supercomputer, how did Seymour Cray choose to follow up the Cray-1? By evolving its architecture for even higher speeds via flexible multi-processing capabilities.
Enter the landmark Cray X-MP in 1982. It configured up to 4 discrete processors to operate independently or jointly to divvy up workloads. This scalable approach proved a blueprint for modern parallel computing using many nodes. It also signaled a shift away from reliance on just one monolithic processor.
Users could enhance the X-MP‘s horsepower by incorporating more processors as needed instead of replacing the entire system. Cray himself called this his most important contribution to architecture by demonstrating the value of smaller, purpose-built processing elements working symbiotically.
Cray T3D – Interconnect Breakthroughs
By 1993, the quest for speed entered a new era – that of massively parallel processing (MPP). Rather than a mere handful of processors, now imagine interconnecting thousands of individual nodes as an ensemble. This transition from vector to MPP systems required breakthroughs in how nodes communicate, share data, and synchronize efforts.
Here again, Cray‘s ingenuity revolutionized the field via the novel Cray T3D – one of the first genuine MPP supercomputers. Its secret? The ingenious 3D torus topology facilitating swift data flow between over 2,000 microprocessors. Like donuts wrapped in donuts, this lattice structure gave every node multiple pathways to any peer on the system by eliminating bottlenecks.
Combined with brisk node communication, the T3D harnessed once unfathomable parallel power for complex modeling and simulations useful to academics and industry alike. Later parallel Cray models like the T3E and XT3 adopted this interconnected 3D torus approach which remains influential today.
HPE Cray EX – Exascale Speeds Unleashed
The 2010s saw meteoric advances in supercomputers leveraging graphics and AI capabilities from the gaming industry. As part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise after a 2019 merger, Cray spearheaded perhaps its greatest innovation since the 1976 Cray-1.
I‘m referring to the HPE Cray EX series and its Shasta architecture– the first US supercomputer to achieve exascale performance in 2018. But what is exascale computing exactly? It means executing over 1 quintillion operations per second – that‘s a billion billion!
To grasp the exponential leap this signifies, consider that a mere 30 years ago in 1985, the Cray-2 topped out at 1.9 gigaflops. Fast forward to today when HPE Cray EX models like Aurora routinely perform 1.5 exaflops. That‘s over 6 orders of magnitude faster thanks to incredible density from customized high-speed interconnects between elements.
| System | Year | Peak Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Cray-2 | 1985 | 1.9 gigaflops |
| HPE Cray EX | 2018 | 1.5+ exaflops |
Such otherworldly speeds open new frontiers in areas like weather prediction, nuclear fusion research, personalized medicine, and more. Exascale systems also provide academia and industry access to capabilities once exclusive to national labs. Clearly, Cray‘s proud legacy of performance innovation continues today even over 4 decades since Seymour Cray revolutionized computing with his scrappy startup.
And there you have it – a sweeping picture of Cray‘s indelible impact as explorers on technology‘s bleeding edge. Their showstopping tools empower scientists and organizations globally to analyze intricacies of nature and human systems otherwise beyond reach.
What part of Cray‘s origin story speaks loudest to you from a tech perspective? For me, it‘s the brilliance of Seymour Cray‘s engineering vision – conceiving breakthrough systems decades ahead of their time even back in the 1970s. It fuels my own passion to continuously push boundaries in ways that fundamentally reshape what computers can achieve.
Cray‘s enduring ethos gives me confidence other epochal leaps await in computing‘s future. Perhaps you‘ll even design history‘s next great supercomputer yourself, building on their trailblazing momentum!
