In Honor of Seymour Roger Cray

Growing up in Minnesota gave me early access to state-of-the-art computers of that era, since both Control Data Corporation and Cray Research made their homes nearby. A visionary pioneer in computer design in these early years of "supercomputers" was Seymour Cray, responsible for the design of several of the world's fastest computers at that time. Seymour always advocated that "simplicity was the key to speed." His noteworthy engineering successes include the first computer I ever programmed, the CDC 6600, at the University of Minnesota Computer Center in 1967. Mr. Cray died as a result of an automobile accident on October 5th, 1996, and his loss is still mourned by many: The Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota created the Cray Research Virtual Museum that highlights important contributions by Seymour Cray and includes photos of many of the computers he designed. The original exhibit at CBI has been removed but the above link to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine leads to the same material. CBI does still have this great photo of Mr. Cray seated in front of serial #1 of the CDC 1604, taken circa 1961.
 
If you know of original material that can contribute to this exposé, please contact me at tef [at] cgl.ucsf.edu. (Originally posted Jan 24, 1997. Updated Apr 15, 2020.)