donegan@stanton.TCC.COM (Steven P. Donegan) (12/08/88)
I heard a story recently: Seymour Cray called Apple and noted that he had heard Apple was using a Cray to design future Mackintosh systems. He informed Apple that he was using a Mackintosh to design future Cray's. Truth or fiction, anyone know? -- Steven P. Donegan These opinions are given on MY time, not Sr. Telecommunications Analyst Western Digital's Western Digital Corp. stanton!donegan || donegan@stanton.TCC.COM || donegan%stanton@tcc.com
nlp@vu-vlsi.Villanova.EDU (Nick Pine) (12/11/88)
In article <90@stanton.TCC.COM> donegan@stanton.TCC.COM (Steven P. Donegan) writes: > >Seymour Cray called Apple and noted that he had heard Apple was using a Cray >to design future Mackintosh systems. > Well, I don't know. By the way, can you confirm or deny these: 1. SC designed the 160A in a weekend. 2. SC used to park his MG on the front lawn at the CDC towers for board meetings with a cardboard sign on the windshield: "S. Cray, do not disturb." 3. SC visited a beta site for a large (6600?) computer which was having problems, listened to descriptions of those problems, which had plagued everyone for weeks, ordered everyone out of the computer room, sat for 2 hours and 21 minutes, called everyone back in, and said "change THIS wire," pointing to a schematic, and went back to Chippewa Falls. The change was made, and the problem was solved. --Nick
pjt@munmurra.mu.oz (Peter John Treloar) (12/12/88)
in article <90@stanton.TCC.COM>, donegan@stanton.TCC.COM (Steven P. Donegan) says: > Seymour Cray called Apple and noted that he had heard Apple was using a Cray > to design future Mackintosh systems. > He informed Apple that he was using a Mackintosh to design future Cray's. > I saw a reference to this in "Cray Channels" which is a glossy cray publication. Hence is Cray Research says its true then it must be ;-).
baum@Apple.COM (Allen J. Baum) (12/13/88)
[] >In article <90@stanton.TCC.COM> donegan@stanton.TCC.COM (Steven P. Donegan) writes: >I heard a story recently: > >Seymour Cray called Apple and noted that he had heard Apple was using a Cray >to design future Mackintosh systems. > ^^^^^^^^^^ <--------thats Macintosh, of course. >He informed Apple that he was using a Mackintosh to design future Cray's. > >Truth or fiction, anyone know? Truth. I've seen it. -- baum@apple.com (408)974-3385 {decwrl,hplabs}!amdahl!apple!baum
baum@Apple.COM (Allen J. Baum) (12/13/88)
[] >In article <2054@vu-vlsi.Villanova.EDU> nlp@vu-vlsi.UUCP (Nick Pine) writes: >In article <90@stanton.TCC.COM> donegan@stanton.TCC.COM (Steven P. Donegan) writes: ...Seymour Cray story... >Well, I don't know. By the way, can you confirm or deny these: > ...more apocryphal S. Cray stories... > 3. SC visited a beta site for a large (6600?) computer which was having > problems, listened to descriptions of those problems, which had > plagued everyone for weeks, ordered everyone out of the computer > room, sat for 2 hours and 21 minutes, called everyone back in, and > said "change THIS wire," pointing to a schematic, and went back to > Chippewa Falls. The change was made, and the problem was solved. These sound like the stories told about Norbert Weiner, father of cybernetics and the ultimate absent-minded professor. The story I heread was extremely similar-- he heard the symptoms over the phone and told them to open up some chassis and they'd find a mouse that had crawled in and gotten itself electrocuted. So, guess what they found...... -- baum@apple.com (408)974-3385 {decwrl,hplabs}!amdahl!apple!baum
fjp@raspail.UUCP (Frank Politano) (12/13/88)
In article <2054@vu-vlsi.Villanova.EDU>, nlp@vu-vlsi.Villanova.EDU (Nick Pine) writes: > In article <90@stanton.TCC.COM> donegan@stanton.TCC.COM (Steven P. Donegan) writes: > > > >Seymour Cray called Apple and noted that he had heard Apple was using a Cray > >to design future Mackintosh systems. [stuff about SC using a Mac to design Crays not included] Sure, why not? Not that he called Apple (who cares?) but that he might use a Mac in his design work. Ditto for Apple using a Cray. I'm sure they both use their own machines too for appropriate design tasks: a Mac for design notes with combined text and graphics, and a Cray for simulation (although this seems a tad extreme...) > Well, I don't know. By the way, can you confirm or deny these: > >1. SC designed the 160A in a weekend. Not so hard to imagine - depends on what level of abstraction you're talking about (ie. define "designed"). High level conceptual - no problem; register-transfer - quite possibly; gate/transistor level along with power & mechanical - not too likely (IMHO). >3. SC visited a beta site for a large (6600?) computer which was having > problems, listened to descriptions of those problems, which had > plagued everyone for weeks, ordered everyone out of the computer > room, sat for 2 hours and 21 minutes, called everyone back in, and > said "change THIS wire," pointing to a schematic, and went back to > Chippewa Falls. The change was made, and the problem was solved. This really isn't anything that the principle designer of any system shouldn't be able to do for the system he/she designed. The only thing I can't understand is why it should have taken so long :-). ----------------- Dave Christie, Control Data Canada "Any opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of CDC."
kulkarni@hpcuhb.HP.COM (Sandeep Kulkarni) (12/13/88)
/ hpcuhb:comp.arch / donegan@stanton.TCC.COM (Steven P. Donegan) / 9:55 pm Dec 7, 1988 / >I heard a story recently: > >Seymour Cray called Apple and noted that he had heard Apple was using a Cray >to design future Mackintosh systems. > >He informed Apple that he was using a Mackintosh to design future Cray's. > >Truth or fiction, anyone know? That's what I heard from John Rollwagon, Cray Computer's CEO, in a talk given at UW-Madison, summer 1988. >Steven P. Donegan These opinions are given on MY time, not ---- Sandeep Kulkarni (kulkarni@hpda.hp.com) System Arch. Lab., CSG R&D., Hewlett-Packard Company. ----
zeke@eta.unix.ETA.COM (Robert K. Scott) (12/13/88)
In article <90@stanton.TCC.COM>, donegan@stanton.TCC.COM (Steven P. Donegan) writes: > I heard a story recently: > > Seymour Cray called Apple and noted that he had heard Apple was using a Cray > to design future Mackintosh systems. > > He informed Apple that he was using a Mackintosh to design future Cray's. > > Truth or fiction, anyone know? Quite true. Apple has had a Cray for some time now, and uses it for design and simulation, including simulating instruction sets for computers that don't exist yet so that software development can be done for them. Seymour, as has been reported in various print publications, uses a Mac to keep himself organized and work on his machines. He reportedly is fond of it's ease of use. -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% From the Final Frontier %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% These are my opinions, of course. Why the hell would my company want them? Robert K. "Zeke" Scott internet: zeke@sunfun.eta.com voice: (612) 642-3493 uucp: {amdahl,rutgers}!bungia!eta!sunfun!zeke snail: ETA Systems, Inc. ETC03J, 1450 Energy Park Drive, St. Paul, MN 55108
nate@altos86.UUCP (Nathaniel Ingersoll) (12/14/88)
In article <2054@vu-vlsi.Villanova.EDU> nlp@vu-vlsi.UUCP (Nick Pine) writes:
[Seymour Cray legends]
: 3. SC visited a beta site for a large (6600?) computer which was having
: problems, listened to descriptions of those problems, which had
: plagued everyone for weeks, ordered everyone out of the computer
: room, sat for 2 hours and 21 minutes, called everyone back in, and
: said "change THIS wire," pointing to a schematic, and went back to
: Chippewa Falls. The change was made, and the problem was solved.
From the old story, "Real Programmers don't use Pascal" came a blurb
about how Cray keyed in the entire 6Kword operating system of one of the
earlier CDC computers he designed, from memory, using the front panel
switches.
Anyone have that article?
:--Nick
--
Nathaniel Ingersoll
Altos Computer Systems, SJ CA
...!ucbvax!sun!altos86!nate
altos86!nate@sun.comjrk@s1.sys.uea.ac.uk (Richard Kennaway) (12/14/88)
In article <90@stanton.TCC.COM>, donegan@stanton.TCC.COM (Steven P. Donegan) writes:
< I heard a story recently:
<
< Seymour Cray called Apple and noted that he had heard Apple was using a Cray
< to design future Mackintosh systems.
<
< He informed Apple that he was using a Mackintosh to design future Cray's.
<
< Truth or fiction, anyone know?
This story appeared on the net (comp.sys.mac, I think) about 2 years ago,
quoted from the Wall Street Journal.
So it must be true. :-)
--
Richard Kennaway SYS, University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K.
uucp: ...mcvax!ukc!uea-sys!jrk Janet: kennaway@uk.ac.uea.syslevy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) (12/16/88)
In article <813@munmurra.mu.oz>, pjt@munmurra.mu.oz (Peter John Treloar) writes: > I saw a reference to this in "Cray Channels" which is a glossy cray publication. > Hence is Cray Research says its true then it must be ;-). (I think you mean "if" not "is") I don't know about now, but I've seen tongue-in-cheek stuff from Cray before. (The less polite would call it bullsh*tting.) Like the way that the balance of the signal propagation delays in the DIGITAL LOGIC in a Cray-1 causes a a load with 0 power factor to be presented to the AC POWER LINE (think about it; think about how power supplies are implemented; and think about the semi- literate computer science hack who doesn't know much about electrical engi- neering and eats that kind of stuff up like it was from Moses). So is Cray really using a Macintosh to design Crays? Who knows? You'd think they would use the power of existing Crays to design other Crays but then.... -- |------------Dan Levy------------| THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED HEREIN ARE MINE ONLY | Bell Labs Area 61 (R.I.P., TTY)| AND ARE NOT TO BE IMPUTED TO AT&T. | Skokie, Illinois | |-----Path: att!ttbcad!levy-----|
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (12/17/88)
In article <3093@ttrdc.UUCP> levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) writes: >I don't know about now, but I've seen tongue-in-cheek stuff from Cray before. >(The less polite would call it bullsh*tting.) Like the way that the balance >of the signal propagation delays in the DIGITAL LOGIC in a Cray-1 causes a >a load with 0 power factor to be presented to the AC POWER LINE... Are you sure somebody other than Cray hasn't been bullshitting you? What Cray claims is that the balanced differential circuits (propagation delays have nothing to do with it) cause a DC load to be presented to the DC power supplies (who cares what happens on the AC power line?) thus eliminating nasty problems with standing waves in power and ground planes. -- "God willing, we will return." | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology -Eugene Cernan, the Moon, 1972 | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
shan@mcf.UUCP (Sharan Kalwani) (12/18/88)
In article <90@stanton.TCC.COM> donegan@stanton.TCC.COM (Steven P. Donegan) writes: >I heard a story recently: >Seymour Cray called Apple and noted that he had heard Apple was using a Cray >to design future Mackintosh systems. >He informed Apple that he was using a Mackintosh to design future Cray's. >Truth or fiction, anyone know? Unfortunately I cannot comment whether this is truth or fiction. But it does make for an interesting story doesn't it? When I joined Cray Research Inc. I was shipped off to Mendota Heights, MN for software training. There we have a large number of Crays for various development actvities and there is also a visitors viewing gallery. Me, a fresh employee was kind of excited and so I went over there to check out them machines. Right in front of me was the Cray-2 and it was fascinating to see the liquid cooling mechanism and those modules sitting right in the bath, wtih an occasional bubble rising up across the glass panel. I turned to a colleague standing next me and remarked, "You know the Cray-2 gives new meaning to the term <floating point operation>!" My friend immediately burst out in laughter and still cracks up when we talk about it. --shan .--------------------------------------------------------------------------. !Sharan Kalwani, UNICOS Site Analyst, Cray Research Inc. ! !e-mail: ! ! INTERNET: shan@hall.cray.com ! ! USENET: ...!uunet!cray.com!shan ! `--------------------------------------------------------------------------'
bcase@cup.portal.com (Brian bcase Case) (12/20/88)
>So is Cray really using a Macintosh to design Crays? Who knows? You'd think >they would use the power of existing Crays to design other Crays but then.... Guys, he's using the Mac to prepare documentation, you know like block diagrams and schematics. I doubt he's using the mac to do simulations.
tdg@hall.cray.com (Terry Greyzck) (12/20/88)
In article <1971@mcf.UUCP> shan@mcf.UUCP (Sharan Kalwani) writes: >a colleague standing next me and remarked, "You know the Cray-2 gives >new meaning to the term <floating point operation>!" > There are other comments of that type, like how the CRAY-2 was designed with transparent front panels so you could see more Cray. And how it is the first machine with true bubble memory. Hey, don't shoot, I wasn't the inventor of these! Terry
mjt@super.ORG (Michael J. Tighe) (12/21/88)
>In article <90@stanton.TCC.COM> donegan@stanton.TCC.COM (Steven P. Donegan) writes: >I heard a story recently: >Seymour Cray called Apple and noted that he had heard Apple was using a Cray >to design future Mackintosh systems. >He informed Apple that he was using a Mackintosh to design future Cray's. >Truth or fiction, anyone know? During the 21st semi-annual Cray User Group Meeting held April 25-29 1988, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Marcelo A. Gamucio gave an address titled, "CRI Corporate Report". She talked about a lot of things, but at the end she opened the floor for questions. Here is how it went: Question: This is actually more in the nature of a rumor, is it actually true that Apple owns a Cray machine and they are using that to design their new Apple product and Seymour owns a Macintosh and he's using that to design the Cray-3? Answer: That's not true. It is true Apple has an X-MP to design the next generation Apple, it is not true that Seymour has a Macintosh - Seymour has SIX Mac's. It's absolutely true that Seymour is very very positive on the Macintosh and he has had an opportunity to look at the architecture of the machine, he claims it is a contribution to computing. He has never seen anything like this in a small machine and he is the greatest fan that Apple could have. Question: Is it possible we'll see a gallium arsenide Mac as a result? Answer: Who knows. "Nothing good ever came out of a committee." - Seymour Cray -- ------------- Michael Tighe internet: mjt@super.org uunet: ...!uunet!super!mjt