Cray-1

Cray-1
A Cray-1 on display at the Science Museum in London
Design
ManufacturerCray Research
DesignerSeymour Cray
Release date1975
Units soldOver 100
PriceUS$7.9 million in 1977 (equivalent to $39.7 million in 2023)
Casing
DimensionsHeight: 196 cm (77 in)[1]
Dia. (base): 263 cm (104 in)[1]
Dia. (columns): 145 cm (57 in)[1]
Weight5.5 tons (Cray-1A)
Power115 kW @ 208 V 400 Hz[1]
System
Front-endData General Eclipse
Operating systemCOS & UNICOS
CPU64-bit processor @ 80 MHz[1]
Memory8.39 Megabytes (up to 1 048 576 words)[1]
Storage303 Megabytes (DD19 Unit)[1]
FLOPS160 MFLOPS
SuccessorCray X-MP

3D rendering of a Cray-1 with two figures as scale

The Cray-1 was a supercomputer designed, manufactured and marketed by Cray Research. Announced in 1975, the first Cray-1 system was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976. Eventually, eighty Cray-1s were sold, making it one of the most successful supercomputers in history. It is perhaps best known for its unique shape, a relatively small C-shaped cabinet with a ring of benches around the outside covering the power supplies and the cooling system.

The Cray-1 was the first supercomputer to successfully implement the vector processor design. These systems improve the performance of math operations by arranging memory and registers to quickly perform a single operation on a large set of data. Previous systems like the CDC STAR-100 and ASC had implemented these concepts but did so in a way that seriously limited their performance. The Cray-1 addressed these problems and produced a machine that ran several times faster than any similar design.

The Cray-1's architect was Seymour Cray; the chief engineer was Cray Research co-founder Lester Davis.[2] They would go on to design several new machines using the same basic concepts, and retained the performance crown into the 1990s.

2-views drawing of a Cray-1 with scaling
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Cray-1 Computer System Hardware Reference Manual 2240004, Rev C, Publication: 1977 November 4, Cray Research, Inc.
  2. ^ C.J. Murray, "The ultimate team player," Archived October 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Design News, March 6, 1995.