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Is that apple red, or Cray?

This appears to be true, but there is also a mythos which has grown up concerning the story of how Apple acquired their first CRAY and whether, or not, Seymour Cray himself ever mentioned the Apple/CRAY, CRAY/Apple connection.

Documented: Apple uses a Cray to design hardware systems; Cray uses an Apple...

The Cray Research and Cray computers FAQ Part 3, says:

"Cray and Apple, seemly at opposite ends of the computer spectrum, do have some subtle links. It was known that Seymour Cray used an Apple desktop some of the time when designing the Cray-2. It is also known that Apple had a sequence of Cray machines starting in March 1986 with an XMP/28 followed by another XMP in Feb 1991. A YMP-2E arrived later in 1991 and finally an EL from Dec 1993 to Jun 98. It is said that Apples first XMP was bought by Steve Jobs after he just walked into the Cray facility in Mendota Heights."

Note, reegarding Steve Jobs, the FAQ says, "It is said...."

One can also find this alleged "quote" at many sites on the net, "When told that Steve Jobs bought a CRAY to help design the next Apple, Seymour Cray said, 'Funny, I am using an Apple to simulate the CRAY-3.'" (Note the different model of CRAY.)

So far, there is no first-hand evidence Seymour Cray actually said this, or that Steve Jobs walked in off the street to buy a CRAY. But, these are oft-told tales. One can find them included in term papers and reports in the student user spaces of many .edu sites.

They can also be found many other places where the story ranges from a single sentence, through several paragraphs to nearly a page in the The Cray Research and Cray computers FAQ Part 3 (see references).

High Tech Heroes is a community access TV show dedicated to showcasing people who have made a substantial technical contribution to the high-tech world. It is hosted by Sherwin Gooch and can be seen on the community access stations in about eight cities nationwide. In episode 24, Mr. Gooch interviewed Jean-Louis Gassee, director of Cray Computer and CEO of Be Labs. Gasse discussed the past few years, including architecting(sic) the Macintosh II computer and serving on Seymour Cray's board of directors.

So, it does appear that at least "Apple use(d) a Cray to design (a) hardware system(s)...."

But what of the story of Seymour Cray's quotation?

The Networker, "The Information Technology Newsmagazine of the University of Southern Claifornia," in the November/December 1996 issue of Volume 7, Number 2, contains the following tribute after Cray's death in an auto accident in 1996.

Supercomputing pioneer Seymour Cray dies

Dave Frank, senior software instructor for Cray Research at SGI remembers Cray: 'Seymour was universally respected and admired by those who worked with and for him. In 12 years at Cray Research, I have never encountered an exception to this.'

After Cray's death, employees of Cray Research circulated stories recounting personal memories of their former boss. According to Frank, 'The "Seymour Stories" overflowed with affection and more than a touch of awe.'

Frank offers his Seymour Story:

'Apple Computer purchased a big Cray supercomputer in the mid-1980s. In fact, Steve Jobs was Cray's first and only walk-in customer. He arrived unannounced at Cray headquarters in Mendota Heights, Minnesota and asked to speak to someone about buying a Cray. They nearly threw him out. It's only slightly less eccentric than someone walking into NASA Johnson Space Center and inquiring how to purchase a shuttle orbiter.

'Later, Cray president John Rollwagen phoned Seymour and told him that Apple had just purchased a Cray that would be used in designing the next Macintosh. Seymour thought for a bit, and replied that it seemed reasonable, since he was using a Macintosh to design the next Cray!'

MacTech Magazine's net site has the following letter posted from 1987, citing a WSJ article:

"Seymour Cray on Macintosh" S.C. Kim Hunter, Mission Viejo, CA

In case you missed this gem from the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 30, 1986, I thought I'd pass this along to you. It seems John Scully mentioned at the December Boston conference on high technology how Apple had recently bought a Cray supercomputer for a cool $14.5 million to design the next generation Apple. This prompted the following remarks from John Rollwagen, Cray's chief executive, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal article: 'since they were good enough to buy one of our machines, some of us have bought a few of theirs.' Later Mr. Rollwagen told Seymour Cray, the company founder, about how Apple was using the machine, and he related Mr. Cray's reaction saying 'There was a pause on the other end of the line, and Seymour said, "That's interesting, because I'm designing the next Cray with an Apple!"

[Editor's note: this specific WSJ article has not yet been tracked down, but neither would it be first-hand documentation.]

Apple Computer's September 1999 launch of the G4 Macintosh computers on the Apple Web site displayed a Cray YMP-8D computer on the processor page.

While there was no direct reference to that particular machine there was a sidebar headed, "A Brief History of Supercomputers" which included the following:

"For the benefit of computer history buffs, Apple's association with supercomputers goes back to the company's early days. Story has it that Seymour Cray founder of Cray Research and father of several generations of supercomputers heard that Apple had bought a Cray to simulate computer design. Cray was amused, remarking, 'Funny, I am using an Apple to simulate the Cray-3.'"

The Cray Research and Cray computers FAQ Part 3, says of this quote, that due to the time frame involved, the Cray box referred to "should be Cray-2."

Please note, though, the sidebar on the Apple site, says, "Story has it that...." So, even Apple presents this as a "story." Is this a corporate UL?

One interesting side note: with the rapid advance of computer design, the clustering of desktop machines can and does rival the computational power of supercomputers. Scientists at UCLA thought they might get supercomputing power at desktop prices if they clustered several off-the-shelf desktop computers and an operating system with natural networking capabilities, fast processors, and standard commercial software. Initiallly, they built a cluster of four Apple Power Macintosh G3 computers running standard MacOS. Thus was born "AppleSeed." They were right – it doesn't have to be that hard. It doesn't have to be expensive. You don't have to reconfigure capable computers so they can't run the usual office productivity applications. In fact, the Appleseed computers are actually used by students during the day for regular student stuff. And above all, you don't need a specialized systems administrator.

They have now clustered Macintosh G4s and state, "The performance of this cluster was excellent for certain classes of problems.... One can see that the Mac cluster performance was comparable to that achieved by the Cray T3E-900 and the IBM SP2/266 in this case." and, "Indeed, the recent advances in computational performance is astonishing. A cluster of 4 G3s now has the same computational power (and twice the memory) as one of the best supercomputers of 8 years ago, a 4 processor CRAY Y-MP."

References:

• High Tech Heroes program information
• Apple's PowerMac G4 Promo site with Cray quotation sidebar and CRAY YMP pictured.
• Cray Research and Cray computers FAQ Part 3
• The UCLA
• USC NetWorker Magazine article
• The MacTech letters column.
• Tribute to Seymour Cray at Supercomputing '96, November 19, 1996