Cray

Cray Inc.
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Supercomputers, data storage, analytics solutions
Predecessor	Cray Research, Inc.
Founded	1972
Founder	Seymour Cray
Headquarters	Seattle, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Peter Ungaro (CEO)
Products	Supercomputers, data storage, analytics solutions
Owner	Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Parent	Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Cray Inc., operating as a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is a prominent American manufacturer specializing in supercomputer technology, with its main offices located in Seattle, Washington. In addition to supercomputers, the firm designs and builds advanced data storage and analytics solutions. Currently, Cray's supercomputers dominate the TOP500 list, occupying the top three rankings among the world's most powerful computing systems.

The company traces its origins back to 1972 when computer engineer Seymour Cray founded Cray Research, Inc. Manufacturing activities continue in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, Cray’s hometown. Following its acquisition by Silicon Graphics in 1996, Cray was reestablished in 2000 after being purchased by Tera Computer Company, which adopted the Cray Inc. name. In 2019, Hewlett Packard Enterprise completed the acquisition of Cray for $1.3 billion.

Early Career and Foundations (1950–1972)

Seymour Cray began his computing career in 1950 at Engineering Research Associates (ERA) based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he contributed to the development of the ERA 1103. After ERA merged into UNIVAC and eventually dissolved, Cray departed in 1960 when several former ERA employees founded Control Data Corporation (CDC). Initially working at CDC’s headquarters in Minneapolis, he relocated to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin to minimize management disruptions. During his tenure at CDC, Cray designed landmark supercomputers such as the CDC 6600 and CDC 7600.

Cray Research Inc. and Cray Computer Corporation Era (1972–1996)

Facing financial difficulties at CDC in the late 1960s, funding for Cray’s ambitious CDC 8600 project was curtailed. This led him to establish Cray Research, Inc. in 1972, placing research and development operations in Chippewa Falls with corporate headquarters in Minneapolis. The company’s first major product, the Cray-1, was a revolutionary supercomputer that secured substantial market success by selling for $8.8 million shortly after its launch. Subsequent development produced the Cray-2, which offered only incremental performance improvements compared to the internally developed Cray X-MP.

Cray stepped down as CEO to work as an independent consultant and founded Cray Laboratories in Boulder, Colorado in 1979 with a focus on Very Large Scale Integration technologies; this venture ceased operations in 1982. Later, he led Cray Computer Corporation (CCC) from Colorado Springs starting in 1989, concentrating on the innovative Cray-3, which utilized gallium arsenide semiconductors. However, geopolitical changes following the Cold War diminished market demand; only one unit of the Cray-3 was sold before CCC declared bankruptcy in 1995. The assets of CCC were subsequently transferred to Seymour Cray’s final enterprise, SRC Computers, Inc.

Meanwhile, Cray Research continued advancing separate product lines under lead engineer Steve Chen, producing models such as the Cray X-MP, followed by the Cray Y-MP, Cray C90, and Cray T90. These systems enhanced computational speed through multi-processor configurations and increased clock rates while preserving the fundamental architecture of the original Cray-1. The challenges faced during the Cray-2 project inspired several compatible "Crayette" companies that developed more affordable CMOS versions of X-MP processors accompanied by specialized software environments. Presently, Cray OS is a customized variant of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

During the 1980s, the high-performance computing market shifted focus toward massively parallel architectures introduced by competitors such as Thinking Machines Corporation, Intel, among others. Initially skeptical due to software complexity issues, Cray eventually adopted parallel processing with Alpha-based systems like the Cray T3D and later the Cray T3E, maintaining its standing as a top supercomputer supplier alongside NEC by the year 2000.

Owning a Cray supercomputer became synonymous with prestige because of their high price points and limited production numbers. Marketing strategies emphasized exclusivity by promoting a "club of countries operating Crays" through branded merchandise and materials.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, smaller-scale supercomputers or minisupercomputers from companies such as Convex Computer and Supertek outperformed lower-end Crays in certain markets. To respond, Cray acquired Supertek in 1990 and rebranded its S-1 system as the Cray XMS. Despite initial difficulties, subsequent models like the Cray Y-MP (later renamed Cray EL90) achieved moderate success among smaller enterprises including those involved in oil exploration. This product line evolved into the Cray J90 series and ultimately culminated with the introduction of the Cray SV1 by 1998.

In December 1991, Cray expanded its portfolio by acquiring assets from Floating Point Systems—a minisupercomputer manufacturer that had transitioned into SPARC-based file server production. This acquisition led to the formation of Cray Research Superservers (later known as Cray Business Systems Division), which marketed symmetric multiprocessing machines such as the Cray S-MP and subsequently the more powerful Cray CS6400. Although these systems were capable for specific workloads, they struggled commercially due to their divergence from Cray’s traditional core market.

Meanwhile, CCC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 1995 while developing an advanced variant called the Cray-3/SSS.

Silicon Graphics ownership (1996–2000)

In February 1996, Silicon Graphics (SGI) completed the acquisition of Cray Research for $740 million. Shortly thereafter, in May, SGI divested Cray's Superservers division to Sun Microsystems, which subsequently developed the UltraSPARC-based Starfire initiative into the successful Sun Enterprise 10000 server series. SGI incorporated Cray innovations such as the HIPPI computer bus and interconnect technologies from the T3 line to broaden its supercomputing capabilities beyond its traditional graphics workstation market.

SGI’s strategy focused on combining its advanced server offerings with Cray’s product portfolio through a two-stage approach named SN1 and SN2. The SN1 effort culminated in the SGI Origin 3000 system architecture, superseding previous platforms. However, the SN2 project, intended to consolidate all high-performance systems including the T90, was never finalized before SGI sold Cray; the SN2 designation was later associated with the SGI Altix 3000 platform.

Seymour Cray, the company’s founder and a seminal figure in supercomputing entrepreneurship, passed away in October 1996. Under SGI’s management, Cray introduced the SV1 in 1998—a clustered SMP vector processor derived from J90 technology—highlighting ongoing advancements in their products and services.

On March 2, 2000, SGI transferred ownership of Cray to Tera Computer Company, which then rebranded itself as Cray Inc., initiating a major corporate restructuring that paved the way for future growth.

Post-Tera merger (2000–2019)

Following the merger with Tera, Cray reintroduced the Tera MTA system as the Cray MTA-2, though it achieved only limited commercial traction with just two customers. The company also rebranded NEC’s SX-6 as the Cray SX-6 after securing exclusive sales rights for North America.

In 2002, Cray launched the Cray X1, a vector processor and massively parallel supercomputer that evolved from earlier SGI designs. By 2004, Cray was collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy on a project to develop a 50-teraflop machine for Oak Ridge National Laboratory. That year, the X1 attained a performance of 5.9 teraflops, ranking 29th worldwide; it was subsequently upgraded to the faster X1E version.

The Cray XD1 debuted in October 2004 as an entry-level supercomputer utilizing dual-core AMD Opteron processors alongside FPGAs to boost processing power and I/O throughput. Although it experienced moderate success, this model was eventually phased out.

In 2004, Cray also completed the Red Storm system for Sandia National Laboratories, featuring innovative SeaStar interconnects paired with AMD Opteron CPUs. This system formed the basis for the commercial Cray XT3 massively parallel supercomputer.

Peter Ungaro assumed the role of CEO on August 8, 2005, bringing leadership experience from his previous positions as Vice President of Sales and Marketing and President.

The Cray XT4, released in 2006, improved memory support and processing power by incorporating a second-generation SeaStar2 interconnect with optional FPGA integration. Later that year, Cray announced the Cray XMT, a system combining multithreaded processors with SeaStar2 interconnects designed to reduce costs through shared ASICs and components; in 2011, Switzerland’s National Supercomputing Center ordered an upgraded second-generation XMT.

Cray introduced its "Adaptive Supercomputing" concept in 2006 with systems like XT4 and XMT sharing common infrastructure. The subsequent XT5h generation integrated diverse computing elements—including Opteron CPUs, vector processors, multithreaded processors, and FPGAs—into a cohesive platform.

In April 2008, Cray partnered with Intel to co-develop next-generation supercomputers resulting in the deskside blade server Cray CX1, equipped with Intel Xeon processors running Windows HPC Server or Red Hat Linux.

By 2009, Cray delivered the Cray XT5 system known as "Jaguar" to Oak Ridge National Laboratory; at that time it was recognized as the world’s fastest supercomputer with over 224,000 cores achieving 1.75 petaflops on LINPACK benchmarks.

The Cray XE6, launched in May 2010, introduced the Gemini interconnect featuring global-address space capabilities that enhanced scalability. Plans were underway for next-generation "Cascade" systems slated for early 2013 deployment using Aries interconnects alongside manycore processors from Intel and Nvidia.

Early in 2010, Cray unveiled rack-mounted Cray CX1000 systems offering configurations based on compute nodes, GPUs, or SMP chassis; both CX1 and CX1000 product lines were available until late 2011.

In 2011, Cray revealed the hybrid Cray XK6 supercomputer combining Gemini interconnects with AMD multi-core CPUs and Nvidia Tesla GPUs; this architecture scaled up to half a million processors delivering peak performance near 50 petaflops. The follow-up XK7 system supported Nvidia Kepler GPUs; Oak Ridge’s Jaguar upgrade to XK7 was dubbed "Titan," exceeding 20 petaflops and briefly holding the fastest supercomputer title until surpassed by Tianhe-2 in 2013.

That same year saw Cray secure a $188 million contract for Blue Waters at the University of Illinois following IBM’s withdrawal; delivered in 2012, it became Cray’s largest x86-based system by cabinet count and processor quantity.

In November 2011, Cray entered high-performance storage markets with its Sonexion 1300 Data Storage System featuring modular design and integration of Lustre file systems.

Also during 2011, Cray co-developed the OpenACC parallel programming standard but began phasing it out in favor of OpenMP by 2019; nonetheless, OpenACC remained supported in select applications such as climate modeling through at least 2022.

In April 2012, Cray divested its interconnect hardware development program along with associated intellectual property to Intel for $140 million—a strategic move to concentrate on core areas.

On November 9, 2012, Cray acquired Appro International—a prominent scalable HPC cluster developer ranked third on the Top500 supercomputer list—and expanded global operations by establishing a new subsidiary in China during that year.

Acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (2019–Present)

On September 25, 2019, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) completed the purchase of the company for $1.3 billion, broadening its presence within the high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors.

In October 2020, HPE was awarded a €144.5 million contract to develop the pre-exascale EuroHPC supercomputer named LUMI, located in Kajaani, Finland. The HPE Cray EX platform is designed to achieve performance levels up to 550 petaflops, ranking LUMI among the fastest supercomputers globally.

On June 28, 2022, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in partnership with General Dynamics, commissioned two HPE Cray supercomputers, each capable of delivering 12.1 petaflops, to support advanced weather and climate modeling.

Most recently, on November 18, 2024, the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) introduced an HPE Cray supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory dedicated to nuclear weapons simulation and fusion research. This system achieved the top position on the November 2024 TOP500 list, with HPE Cray systems occupying seven out of the top ten spots, including ranks one through three.

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