Editing Cray (section)

===Cray Research Inc. and Cray Computer Corporation: 1972–1996===
[[File:Cray2.jpeg|right|thumb|250px|Cray-2 supercomputer]]
When CDC ran into financial difficulties in the late 1960s, development funds for Cray's follow-on [[CDC 8600]] became scarce. When he was told the project would have to be put "on hold" in 1972, Cray left to form his own company, Cray Research, Inc. Copying the previous arrangement, Cray kept the research and development facilities in Chippewa Falls, and put the business headquarters in [[Minneapolis, Minnesota|Minneapolis]]. The company's first product, the [[Cray-1]] supercomputer, was a major success because it was significantly faster than all other computers at the time. The first system was sold within a month for $8.8 million. Seymour Cray continued working, this time on the [[Cray-2]], though it ended up being only marginally faster than the [[Cray X-MP]], developed by another team at the company.

Cray soon left the CEO position to become an independent contractor. He started a new [[Very Large Scale Integration]] technology lab for the Cray-2 in [[Boulder, Colorado]], '''Cray Laboratories''', in 1979, which closed in 1982; undaunted, Cray later headed a similar spin-off in 1989, Cray Computer Corporation (CCC) in [[Colorado Springs, Colorado]], where he worked on the [[Cray-3]] project—the first attempt at major use of [[gallium arsenide]] (GaAs) [[semiconductor]]s in computing. However, the changing political climate (collapse of the [[Warsaw Pact]] and the end of the [[Cold War]]) resulted in poor sales prospects. Ultimately, only one Cray-3 was delivered, and a number of follow-on designs were never completed. The company filed for [[bankruptcy]] in 1995. CCC's remains then became Cray's final corporation, [[Seymour Cray#SRC Computers|SRC Computers, Inc]].

Cray Research continued development along a separate line of computers, originally with lead designer [[Steve Chen (computer engineer)|Steve Chen]] and the [[Cray X-MP]]. After Chen's departure, the [[Cray Y-MP]], [[Cray C90]] and [[Cray T90]] were developed on the original Cray-1 architecture but achieved much greater performance via multiple additional processors, faster clocks, and wider vector pipes. The uncertainty of the Cray-2 project gave rise to a number of Cray-object-code compatible "Crayette" firms: Scientific Computer Systems (SCS), American Supercomputer, [[Supertek]], and perhaps one other firm. These firms did not intend to compete against Cray and therefore attempted less expensive, slower CMOS versions of the X-MP with the release of the COS operating system (SCS) and the CFT [[Fortran]] compiler; they also considered the [[Cray Time Sharing System]] operating system, developed at [[United States Department of Energy national laboratories]] ([[LANL]]/[[LLNL]]), before joining the broader trend toward adoption of [[Unix]]es. Today, Cray OS is a specialized version of [[SuSE Linux Enterprise Server|SUSE Linux Enterprise Server]].<ref>{{cite web|date=2023-01-07 |title=World's Fastest Supercomputer Runs SUSE Linux| url=https://www.suse.com/c/worlds-fastest-supercomputer-runs-suse-linux/}}</ref>

[[File:Processor board cray-2 hg.jpg|thumb|left|Cray T3E processor board]]
A series of [[massively parallel]] computers from [[Thinking Machines Corporation]], [[Kendall Square Research]], [[Intel]], [[nCUBE]], [[MasPar]] and [[Meiko Scientific]] took over the 1980s high performance market. At first, Cray Research denigrated such approaches by complaining that developing software to effectively use the machines was difficult – a true complaint in the era of the [[ILLIAC IV]], but becoming less so each day. Cray eventually realized that the approach was likely the only way forward and started a five-year project to capture the lead in this area: the plan's result was the [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] [[DEC Alpha|Alpha]]-based [[Cray T3D]] and [[Cray T3E]] series, which left Cray as the only remaining supercomputer vendor in the market besides NEC's [[SX architecture]] by 2000.

Most sites with a Cray installation were considered members of the "exclusive club" of Cray operators. Cray computers were considered quite prestigious because Crays were extremely expensive machines, and the number of units sold was small compared to ordinary [[mainframe computer|mainframe]]s. This perception extended to countries as well: to boost the perception of exclusivity, Cray Research's marketing department had promotional [[necktie]]s made with a mosaic of tiny national flags illustrating the "club of Cray-operating countries".<ref>{{cite AV media | date=September 21, 2006 | title= Cray-1 Supercomputer 30th Anniversary| url= https://www.computerhistory.org/events/video/96/ | publisher = [[Computer History Museum]]}}</ref>

New vendors introduced small supercomputers, known as [[minisupercomputer]]s (as opposed to superminis) during the late 1980s and early 1990s, which out-competed low-end Cray machines in the market. The [[Convex Computer]] series, as well as a number of small-scale parallel machines from companies like [[Pyramid Technology]] and [[Alliant Computer Systems]] were particularly popular. One such vendor was [[Supertek]], whose S-1 machine was an air-cooled [[CMOS]] implementation of the X-MP processor. Cray purchased Supertek in 1990 and sold the S-1 as the [[Cray XMS]], but the machine proved problematic; meanwhile, the not-yet-completed S-2, a Y-MP clone, was later offered as the [[Cray Y-MP]] (later becoming the [[Cray EL90]]) which started to sell in reasonable numbers in 1991–92—to mostly smaller companies, notably in the oil exploration business. This line evolved into the [[Cray J90]] and eventually the [[Cray SV1]] in 1998.

In December 1991, Cray purchased some of the assets of [[Floating Point Systems]], another minisuper vendor that had moved into the [[file server]] market with its [[SPARC]]-based Model 500 line.<ref>{{cite news | first=Jim | last=Mallor | title=Cray Research names manager of new subsidiary – Floating Point Systems' Martin Buchanan | work=[[Newsbytes News Network]] | date=January 3, 1992 | id={{Factiva|nbyt000020020615do1300048}} }}</ref> These [[symmetric multiprocessing]] machines scaled up to 64 processors and ran a modified version of the [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]] operating system from [[Sun Microsystems]]. Cray set up Cray Research Superservers, Inc. (later the [[Cray Business Systems Division]]) to sell this system as the [[Cray S-MP]], later replacing it with the [[Cray CS6400]]. In spite of these machines being some of the most powerful available when applied to appropriate workloads, Cray was never very successful in this market, possibly due to it being so foreign to its existing market niche.

CCC was building the [[Cray-3/SSS]] when it went into [[Chapter 11]] bankruptcy in March 1995.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/857101/0000927356-95-000316.txt | title=CRAY COMPUTER CORP FORM 10-Q DATED SEPT. 30, 1995 | publisher=[[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]]}}</ref>