Seymour Cray | |
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Born | Seymour Roger Cray September 28, 1925 |
Died | October 5, 1996 | (aged 71)
Alma mater | University of Minnesota |
Known for | Supercomputers |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Applied mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering |
Institutions | Engineering Research Associates Control Data Corporation Cray Research Cray Computer Corporation SRC Computers |
Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925[1] – October 5, 1996[2]) was an American electrical engineer and supercomputer architect who designed a series of computers that were the fastest in the world for decades, and founded Cray Research which built many of these machines. Called "the father of supercomputing",[2] Cray has been credited with creating the supercomputer industry.[3] Joel S. Birnbaum, then chief technology officer of Hewlett-Packard, said of him: "It seems impossible to exaggerate the effect he had on the industry; many of the things that high performance computers now do routinely were at the farthest edge of credibility when Seymour envisioned them."[4] Larry Smarr, then director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois said that Cray is "the Thomas Edison of the supercomputing industry."[5]