Seymour Cray

Seymour R. Cray earned a Bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering in 1950 from the University of Minnesota. In 1951 he earned a master of science degree in applied mathematics from the same institution. From 1950 to 1957, Mr. Cray held several positions with Engineering Research Associates (ERA), St. Paul, Minnesota. At ERA, he worked on the development of the ERA 1101 scientific computer for the U.S. government. Later, he designed first commercially successful scientific computer. While with ERA, he worked with computer technologies, from vacuum tubes and magnetic amplifiers to transistors. Mr. Cray has spent his entire career designing large-scale computer equipment. He was one of the founders of Control Data Corporation (CDC) in 1957 and was responsible for the design of that company's most successful large-scale computers. He served as a director for CDC from 1957 to 1965 and was senior vice president at his departure in 1972. In 1972, Cray founded Cray Research, Inc. to design and build the world's highest performance general-purpose supercomputers. His CRAY-1 computer established a new standard in supercomputing upon its introduction in 1976, and his CRAY-2 computer system, introduced in 1985, moved supercomputing forward yet again. In July 1989, he started Cray Computer Corporation to continue to expand the frontiers of scientific and engineering supercomputing. He was able to incorporate gallium arsenide logic design and micro-miniature supercomputers. Mr. Cray is the inventor of a number of technologies that have been patented by the companies for which he has worked.