Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925 – October 5, 1996) was an American electrical engineer, computer scientist, mathematician, and supercomputer architect. He designed a series of computers that were the fastest in the world for many years and founded Cray Research, a company that built many of these machines. Known as "the father of supercomputing," Cray helped start the supercomputer industry. Joel S. Birnbaum, who was the chief technology officer of Hewlett-Packard at the time, said, "It's hard to overstate how much he influenced the industry; many of the things that high-performance computers now do routinely were once considered unlikely when Seymour imagined them." Larry Smarr, who was the director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, described Cray as "the Thomas Edison of the supercomputing industry."

Early life

Cray was born in 1925 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, to Seymour R. and Lillian Cray. His father was a civil engineer who encouraged Cray's interest in science and engineering. At the age of ten, he built a device using Erector Set parts that changed punched paper tape into Morse code signals. The basement of the family home became Cray's personal "laboratory" for experiments.

Cray graduated from Chippewa Falls High School in 1943. He was then drafted into World War II as a radio operator. He served in Europe and later worked in the Pacific theatre, where he helped break Japanese naval codes. After returning to the United States, he earned a B.Sc. in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1949. He later received a M.Sc. in applied mathematics in 1951.

Career

In 1950, Cray joined Engineering Research Associates (ERA) in Saint Paul, Minnesota. ERA was created from a former United States Navy laboratory that built machines to break secret codes. ERA continued this work when possible. ERA first learned about computer technology during one of these projects, but also worked on many other engineering tasks at other times.

Cray quickly became known as an expert in digital computer technology, especially after designing the ERA 1103, the first commercially successful scientific computer. He stayed at ERA when the company was bought by Remington Rand and later by Sperry Corporation in the early 1950s. At Sperry Rand, ERA became the scientific computing part of their UNIVAC division.

Cray, along with William Norris, later felt unhappy with ERA and left to form Sperry Rand. In 1957, they started a new company called Control Data Corporation.

By 1960, Cray had finished designing the CDC 1604, an improved and cheaper version of the ERA 1103 that performed well for its price. Even as the CDC 1604 was being sold to customers in 1960, Cray began working on new computers. He first worked on an upgraded version (the CDC 3000 series), but company leaders wanted these machines to focus on basic tasks for regular customers. Cray disliked this work because it limited his ability to create powerful computers. His goal was to build the fastest computer in the world. After some early design work on the CDC 3000 series, he handed it to others and moved on to the CDC 6600. Some features of the 6600 later appeared in the 3000 series.

The CDC 6600 was not the most advanced computer in terms of hardware, but Cray worked hard to make it run as fast as possible. He understood that speed was not just about the processor, but also about how quickly data could move in and out of the computer. He once said, "Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast system."

The CDC 6600 was the first commercial supercomputer, much faster than any other computer available at the time. Though expensive, it was the only option for those who needed the fastest computer. When other companies, like IBM, tried to make similar machines, they faced challenges. Cray solved a major problem called "imprecise interrupts," which caused IBM's failure. He did this by using special mini-computers to handle data transfers instead of traditional methods. The next CDC 7600 was even faster, five times quicker than the 6600.

In 1963, a Business Week article described Cray's ideas about computer performance. He wrote:

— Seymour Cray, "Computers get faster than ever," Business Week (31 August 1963): p. 28.

During this time, Cray became frustrated with what he saw as too much interference from CDC management. He needed a quiet work environment with little management involvement, but as the company grew, he was often interrupted by managers who, he believed, did not contribute much and used him as a sales tool.

Cray decided to move from St. Paul to a location far enough that it would be too long to visit quickly, but close enough for important meetings. Norris supported this and helped set up a new lab in Cray's hometown of Chippewa Falls. Some believe Cray also moved because of fears about nuclear war, which made the Twin Cities unsafe. His home near the new lab included a large bomb shelter.

The new Chippewa Lab was built during the CDC 6600 project, but it did not slow progress. After the 6600 was released, the CDC 7600 was the next major project developed in Chippewa Falls, offering speeds ten times faster than the 6600. The failed CDC 8600 project ended Cray's successful run at CDC in 1972.

Although the CDC 6600 and 7600 were major successes, both projects nearly caused the company to go bankrupt during development. The CDC 8600 faced similar problems, and Cray decided to start over. Norris refused to take the risk, so Cray left the company.

The split was friendly, and a year later, Cray started a new company called Cray Research on the same land in Chippewa Falls. Norris invested $250,000 to help start the company. Cray Research's lab was in Chippewa Falls, while business offices were in Minneapolis. Unlike CDC, Cray's manufacturing was also in Chippewa Falls.

At first, it was unclear what the new company would do. It seemed unlikely they could afford to build a new computer, as CDC had struggled to support one. However, when the company's leader visited Wall Street for funding, he found that Cray's reputation was strong. Investors were eager to support Cray's new projects.

After years of development, the company's first product, the Cray-1, was released in 1976. Like earlier Cray designs, the Cray-1 focused on making the entire computer fast, not just the processor. It outperformed most machines, including the STAR-100, which had helped fund the CDC 8600. Only the ILLIAC IV, a specialized machine, could match the Cray-1's speed in specific tasks.

The first Cray-1, serial number 001, was given to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976. That summer, the first full system was sold to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) for $8.8 million. The company had expected to sell about a dozen machines, so the price was set accordingly. Eventually, over 80 Cray-1s were sold, making the company very successful. Cray's work with supercomputers earned him the nickname "The Wizard of Chippewa Falls."

Later success was harder to achieve. While Cray worked on the Cray-2, other teams developed the two-processor Cray X-MP, which became a major success. The four-processor X-MP followed. When the Cray-2 was finally released after six years of development, it was only slightly faster than the X-MP, mainly because of its fast and large memory. It sold fewer units than expected.

Personal life

Cray married Verene Voll in 1947. They had met as children. She was the daughter of a Methodist minister, as was Cray's mother, and Verene worked as a nutritionist. They had three children. Cray and Voll divorced around 1978. He later married Geri M. Harrand. Cray was the grandfather of Andrew Cray, an LGBTQ rights activist.

Cray avoided publicity. There are several unusual stories about his life outside of work, called "Rollwagenisms," shared by John A. Rollwagen, who was then the CEO of Cray Research. Cray enjoyed skiing, windsurfing, tennis, and other sports. Another favorite activity was digging a tunnel under his home. He believed that elves visited him while he worked in the tunnel and provided solutions to his problems: "While I'm digging in the tunnel, the elves will often come to me with solutions to my problem."

One story says that when Cray was asked by management to write detailed one-year and five-year plans for his next machine, he wrote, "Five-year goal: Build the biggest computer in the world. One year goal: One-fifth of the above." Another time, when asked to write a long report for company executives, Cray's report had only two sentences: "Activity is progressing satisfactorily as outlined under the June plan. There have been no significant changes or deviations from the June plan."

Cray was seriously injured in a rollover accident while merging his Jeep Cherokee onto Interstate 25 near the Air Force Academy in Colorado. The accident happened because another vehicle tried to overtake his car. Police gave a citation to the driver who was responsible for the accident. Cray died from his injuries on October 5, 1996, two weeks after the accident and one week after his 71st birthday.

Posthumous

The IEEE Computer Society's Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award was created in late 1997. It honors new and creative ideas that improve fast computer systems, showing the same spirit of innovation that Seymour Cray was known for.