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From: sys@stolaf.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: Re: Cray vs ICs (no more cray 2--part 2)
Message-ID: <1073@stolaf.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Jul-83 10:11:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: stolaf.1073
Posted: Tue Jul  5 10:11:01 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Jul-83 12:22:51 EDT
References: <487@uw-june.UUCP>, <1067@stolaf.UUCP>
Organization: St. Olaf College, Northfield MN
Lines: 44

It looks like I need to clarify my last posting regarding the Cray-2.
It is true that the original Cray-2 was canned.  Since it never went into
production, its replacement will also be called the Cray-2 (how clever).
Perhaps a quote from the article (6/12/83 Minneapolis Tribune) will help...

	"In the fall of 1982 it was obvious that the Steve Chen (a Cray
	development vice president) group had done an excellent job on the
	Cray-1 enhancements.  They were close enough so that the original
	Cray-2 goals were not aggressive enough to warrant continuing,"
	Cray said.

	So Cray began a major overhaul of his Cray-2 design.  Because the
	enhanced Cray-1 was offering two to five times the speed of the
	original Cray-1, his first Cray-2 wouldn't be a significant
	improvement if it offered only six to 12 times the Cray-1's original
	speed, he reasoned.

	But Cray is nothing if not a poet in the world of complex equations
	and high-technology design tradeoffs.  He wove a new kind of meter
	and rhyme that the world has not seen before: Eight computer processors
	working together at 48 times the speed of the original Cray-1.

	Naturally, it hasn't been cheap.  Cray Research has had to build
	an integrated circuit factory in Chippewa Falls [Wisconsin] to make
	high-speed computer chips out of a new material called gallium
	arsenide.  In upgrading the Cray-2 memory, it scrapped $3.6 million
	in old memory components--writing off more than a quarter of the
	1982 Cray-2 research-and-development budget.

	That high-speed model using gallium arsenide chips won't be available
	until 1986, although a slower version using conventional silicon
	chips will be sold next year.  Both are likely to sell for more than
	$10 million each.

	The success of this improved Cray-2 design pleases Cray immensely.
	"I was not an outstanding contributor (to Cray Research) last year,"
	he said.  "But I hope to be this year."

		.
		.
		.

Sorry about the confusion,
Victor Lee -- St. Olaf College, Northfield MN -- ihnp4!stolaf!vtl