Cray facts for kids
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| Subsidiary | |
| Founded | 1972 as Cray Research, Inc. (current corporate entity founded in 1987 as Tera Computer Company) |
| Founder | Seymour Cray |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
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Key people
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Peter Ungaro (CEO) |
| Products | Supercomputers |
| Revenue |  $455.9 million (2018) |
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Operating income
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 -$74.2 million (2018) |
| -$71.6 million (2018) |
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| Total assets | $517.1 million (2018) |
| Total equity | $343.3 million (2018) |
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Number of employees
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1,282 (Dec 2015) |
| Parent | Hewlett Packard Enterprise |
Cray Inc. is a company that makes supercomputers. These are the fastest and most powerful computers in the world. Cray is now part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a big technology company. Cray's main office is in Seattle, Washington, in the U.S.
Besides supercomputers, Cray also builds systems for storing and analyzing huge amounts of data. Many Cray supercomputers are on the TOP500 list. This list ranks the most powerful supercomputers globally.
Cray makes some of its products in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. This is where the company's founder, Seymour Cray, grew up. Cray also has offices and research centers around the world.
The company started in 1972 as Cray Research, Inc. (CRI). It was founded by a brilliant computer designer named Seymour Cray. In 2000, another company, Tera Computer Company, bought Cray Research and changed its name to Cray Inc. Later, in 2019, Hewlett Packard Enterprise bought Cray for $1.3 billion.
Contents
The Story of Cray: Making Supercomputers
Early Days: 1950–1972
The story of Cray begins with Seymour Cray. In 1950, he started working with computers at a company called Engineering Research Associates (ERA). He helped create an early computer called the ERA 1103.
Later, Seymour Cray joined Control Data Corporation (CDC). He designed very successful computers there, like the CDC 6600 and CDC 7600. These were some of the fastest computers of their time. Seymour Cray preferred to work quietly. He even set up a lab in his hometown of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, to avoid interruptions.
Cray Research and Cray Computer Corporation: 1972–1996
In 1972, Seymour Cray decided to start his own company. He left CDC and founded Cray Research, Inc. He kept the research part of the company in Chippewa Falls. The business side was in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The first product from Cray Research was the Cray-1 supercomputer. It was a huge success! The Cray-1 was much faster than any other computer back then. The very first one sold for $8.8 million within a month.
Seymour Cray continued to work on new designs, like the Cray-2. Other teams at Cray Research also developed powerful machines. The Cray X-MP was one of these.
Seymour Cray later started a new company called Cray Computer Corporation (CCC) in 1989. He worked on the Cray-3 project there. This computer was special because it tried to use a new material called gallium arsenide (GaAs) for its parts. However, only one Cray-3 was ever sold. The company eventually closed down in 1995.
Meanwhile, Cray Research kept making new supercomputers. They built machines like the Cray Y-MP, Cray C90, and Cray T90. These computers were based on the original Cray-1 design. They became much faster by using more processors and other improvements.
In the 1980s, new types of supercomputers appeared. These were called massively parallel computers. They used many processors working together. At first, Cray Research thought these were too hard to use. But they soon realized this was the future.
Cray Research then developed the Cray T3D and Cray T3E series. These were very powerful parallel computers. By the year 2000, Cray was one of the few supercomputer makers left.
Having a Cray computer was a big deal. They were very expensive and only a few were sold. This made Cray users feel like they were part of an "exclusive club." Cray even made special neckties with tiny flags of countries that owned their supercomputers!
In the late 1980s, smaller, less expensive supercomputers appeared. These were called minisupercomputers. Cray bought one of these companies, Supertek, in 1990. They sold Supertek's computer as the Cray XMS. This led to other successful machines like the Cray J90.
Silicon Graphics Takes Over: 1996–2000
In February 1996, another company called Silicon Graphics (SGI) bought Cray Research. SGI used some of Cray's ideas to improve its own high-end computers.
Sadly, in October 1996, Cray's founder, Seymour Cray, passed away after a traffic accident.
Under SGI, Cray launched a new computer called the Cray SV1 in 1998. This machine used many processors working together.
Then, in March 2000, Cray was sold again. This time, Tera Computer Company bought Cray and changed its name to Cray Inc.
After the Tera Merger: 2000–2019
After the merger, Cray Inc. kept developing new supercomputers. In 2002, they announced the Cray X1. This was a powerful machine that combined different computer designs.
In 2004, Cray built the Red Storm system for Sandia National Laboratories. Red Storm was a very important project. It led to a series of successful products for Cray. The Cray XT3 was a commercial version of Red Storm. It used AMD Opteron processors.
In 2005, Peter Ungaro became the CEO of Cray. Under his leadership, Cray continued to innovate. They released the Cray XT4 in 2006. This system had better memory and newer processors.
Cray also introduced the Cray XMT in 2006. This system combined special multi-threaded processors with the fast network used in the XT4.
In 2008, Cray worked with Intel to create new supercomputers. This partnership led to the Cray CX1. This was a smaller, desk-sized system. It could use up to 16 Intel Xeon processors.
By 2009, Cray had built one of the world's fastest computers. It was called Jaguar and was at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Jaguar had over 224,000 processing cores. It was the fastest computer in the world for a while.
In 2010, Cray announced the Cray XE6 supercomputer. This machine had a new, very fast connection system called Gemini. This helped it become a successful follow-up to earlier XT products.
In 2011, Cray introduced the Cray XK6 hybrid supercomputer. This system combined Cray's fast network with processors from AMD and Nvidia's special GPGPU processors. The Cray XK7 followed in 2012. It was used to upgrade the Jaguar system, which was renamed Titan. Titan became the world's fastest supercomputer for a time.
Cray also started selling high-performance storage systems in 2011. These systems helped manage the huge amounts of data supercomputers produce.
In 2012, Cray bought another company called Appro International, Inc.. Appro made advanced supercomputing systems. This helped Cray grow even more.
Part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise: 2019–Present
On September 25, 2019, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) bought Cray for $1.3 billion. Cray now operates as a part of HPE.
In 2020, HPE was chosen to build a huge supercomputer called LUMI in Finland. LUMI is an HPE Cray EX system. It will be one of the fastest supercomputers in the world.
In 2022, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) started using two new HPE Cray supercomputers. These powerful machines help NOAA predict weather and climate.
