future for cray???

[Peter Klausler]

The following article has caused more mirth here in Colo Spgs than the senses
can handle, I must say.

alv at cray.com (Albert Viall) writes:
> 
> In article <1991Mar8.132121.22826 at phoenix.pub.uu.oz.au>, billy at phoenix.pub.uu.oz.au (Jeff Coleman) writes:
> > i read (correct me if i'm wrong) that Chen(the main force behind the x/y 
> > series) has left the company ... what does this mean in terms of the future
> > for cray after the Y..will there be a Z ??
> > or a radical change of design
> 
> Jeff,
>   You are not wrong, and that news is about 2 years old. Steve Chen is heading
> up an ambitious project in co-operation with IBM. From what I have read, the
> SSI project is beginning to feel the pinch of budget and deadline overruns,
> (this information from SuperComputing Review).

Supercomputing Review is basically the Mad Magazine of high tech, Al.

> IBM has more than one 
> supercomputer project going on, (i.e. 3090 vectorizing, etc) and I would
> imagine that Big Blue isn't in a position to flush all revenues into Chen's
> R&D.
>   To equate Cray Research with only one or two people lacks doing the company
> justice by a long-shot. True, Seymour and Chen(tauted as the new 'Seymour'),
> are a very flavorful part of Cray history.

Flavorful? Like, maybe, strawberry or something?

> But, Cray Research continues to
> dominate the market in almost every respect; without them.

Yes. Buy CRI stock and make lots of money, Al. Better yet, get a stock option.

> This is due to
> the teamwork and dedication which is prevalent in all the employees who work
> at Cray, from the management level, down.

Hope that scored lots of points for you, guy.

Bitter truth: success is due to the fraction of people at CRI still working
hard and caring. Find these folks and ask just how "prevalent" they are.

> One thing I have observed since the
> beginning of my employment here,(which hasn't been all that long), is that 
> Cray Research is the biggest LITTLE company around.

Go find an old-timer and get her/him to tell you about CRI when it really was a
small company and each sale was critical. Little companies can't afford
corporate massage centers. (I sincerely hope this rumor wasn't true...)

> And I hope it stays on that
> track. I have quite a bit of faith in John Rollwagen and his staff to steer
> Cray on it's path, even with the potential for major competition in the coming
> years from such areas as the Japanese, Convex, SSI, and Seymour himself(CCC).

Nice duck suits, too. It's harder to take big risks when there's 5000 mouths to
feed and large shareholders used to seeing 10% growth per year.

>  Back to your question, (about time, this was beginning to become a tear-
> jerker. :-)); the future after the 'Y', in my opinion looks quite bright. For
> one thing, it's a little early to consider the 'Y', (or in some cases, the 'X'),over the hill just yet. With the improved Model-E IOS's for the 'Y', the end
> throughput to and from the cray is improved many times over, compared to the
> old Model-D. Cray IS working on a new system, but that is all that I can tell
> you at this point. (In fact, it's running as I write this) And it won't be
> called the 'Z'-MP. At least I hope not, it sounds too cutesy.

I'd be the last to tell anyone about the top-secret ee-say inety-nay ystem-say.

>  I can't get into any other details. If you happened to watch any of the Gulf
> War news briefings on CNN, you would know that the same rules apply here.

We hope you don't get in trouble for posting, Al. They might send you to a
touchy-feely session with Barb S.