# Cray

> American supercomputer manufacturer

**Wikidata**: [Q144060](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q144060)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/cray

## Summary
Cray is an American supercomputer manufacturer founded in 1972 by Seymour Cray, a pioneer in high-performance computing. The company designs and builds some of the world's most powerful supercomputers for scientific, engineering, and enterprise applications.

## Key Facts
- Founded in 1972 by Seymour Cray, the "father of supercomputing"
- Parent company is Hewlett Packard Enterprise (acquired in 2019)
- Headquarters located in Seattle, Washington
- Employs approximately 1,042 people as of latest available data
- Listed on NASDAQ under ticker symbol CRAY since September 27, 1995
- Develops and manufactures supercomputers and high-performance computing systems
- Member of the Linux Foundation
- Legal entity identifier: 549300BK2ASMF2NM4Q31
- Primary industry classification: supercomputer manufacturer and information technology

### Q: What is Cray known for?
A: Cray is known for designing and manufacturing some of the world's most powerful supercomputers used for scientific research, weather forecasting, and complex data analysis. The company pioneered many innovations in high-performance computing since its founding in 1972.

### Q: Who founded Cray and why is it significant?
A: Seymour Cray founded the company in 1972 after leaving Control Data Corporation. He's considered the "father of supercomputing" for his innovations in parallel processing and vector computing that revolutionized scientific computing.

### Q: What happened to Cray after it was acquired?
A: Cray was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2019 for approximately $1.3 billion. The acquisition combined HPE's high-performance computing portfolio with Cray's supercomputing expertise to create a comprehensive HPC solutions provider.

## Why It Matters
Cray matters because it has been at the forefront of supercomputing technology for over five decades, enabling breakthroughs in scientific research, national security, and industrial innovation. The company's systems power critical applications including climate modeling, genomic sequencing, artificial intelligence training, and complex simulations that would be impossible on conventional computers. Cray's innovations in parallel processing, cooling systems, and interconnect technologies have set industry standards and pushed the boundaries of what's computationally possible. By providing the computational power needed for solving humanity's most complex problems, Cray has played a crucial role in advancing fields like medicine, energy, aerospace, and fundamental scientific research. The company's legacy continues through HPE's supercomputing division, ensuring that cutting-edge computational capabilities remain available to researchers and organizations worldwide.

## Notable For
- Pioneering vector processing technology that dramatically accelerated scientific computations
- Developing liquid cooling systems that enabled denser, more powerful supercomputer designs
- Creating the first commercially successful massively parallel processing computers
- Building systems that have consistently ranked among the world's fastest supercomputers
- Establishing industry standards for high-performance computing interconnects and software

## Body
### History and Foundation
Cray was founded in 1972 by Seymour Cray, who had previously designed the CDC 6600 and CDC 7600 at Control Data Corporation. These machines were among the first commercial supercomputers, establishing Cray's reputation as a visionary in high-performance computing. The company was created to focus exclusively on building the fastest computers in the world, a mission that would define its identity for decades.

### Technological Innovations
Cray's systems have been characterized by innovative approaches to computing challenges. The company pioneered vector processing, which allows computers to perform the same operation on multiple pieces of data simultaneously, dramatically improving performance for scientific applications. Cray also developed advanced cooling solutions, including immersion cooling and sophisticated liquid cooling systems, to manage the heat generated by increasingly powerful processors.

### Product Line Evolution
The company's product line has evolved from the original Cray-1 (introduced in 1976) through multiple generations of systems. Early systems like the Cray-2 and Cray X-MP established the company's reputation for building the world's fastest computers. Later products incorporated massively parallel processing architectures, combining multiple processors to achieve even greater performance. The company's systems have been used for applications ranging from nuclear weapons simulation to weather forecasting and oil exploration.

### Industry Impact
Cray's influence extends beyond its own products. The company's innovations in interconnect technology, operating systems (including UNICOS), and programming models have become industry standards. Cray's systems have consistently appeared at or near the top of the TOP500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers, demonstrating the company's continued technological leadership.

### Corporate Evolution
After several ownership changes, including periods under SGI and Rackable Systems, Cray operated as an independent public company until its acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2019. This acquisition brought together two leaders in high-performance computing, combining Cray's supercomputing expertise with HPE's broader enterprise technology portfolio.

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## References

1. [GRID](https://www.grid.ac/institutes/grid.467330.5)
2. museum-digital
3. [Source](https://www.cray.com/company/management-team)
4. GRID Release 2017-01-10
5. Polygon.io
6. [Source](https://www.linuxfoundation.org/membership/members/)
7. Freebase Data Dumps. 2013
8. Global LEI Index
9. [Source](http://km.aifb.kit.edu/services/crunchbase/)
10. GRID Release 2016-12-06
11. Aligned ISNI and Ringgold identifiers for institutions
12. [Source](https://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers/enterprise-numbers)
13. Microsoft Academic Knowledge Graph
14. HAL