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When my wife graduated pharmacy school in 1989

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In Reply to: RE: The Rise and Fall of the Cray Supercomputer - for you tech nerds posted by AbeCollins on July 26, 2024 at 09:47:34

Eli Lilly paid for the entire graduating class to travel to and tour their facility in Indianapolis. On the last day, they were taken to a large meeting room with curtains covering the back wall. Once seated, they pulled back the curtains to reveal their Cray 2 on the other side of a glass wall.

They were the first commercial company to leverage the power of the fastest computer of its day for pharmaceutical product research and development.

Incredible to grasp that we all now have such power with our phones and streamers.

Follow Ups:

RE: When my wife graduated pharmacy school in 1989 - AbeCollins 19:53:11 07/26/24 (2)
There's a decommissioned Cray computer on display at NCAR down in the basement. It's open to the public. I don't recall the model as I haven't been down there in decades. It's one of the models with circular base with seat cushions.
- The Cray 2 - E-Stat 20:09:30 07/26/24 (1)
  was very different than previous models circulating non-conductive artificial blood plasma over the boards for cooling.
  
  Bubbles.
  
  Click here
  - Fluorinert is the liquid that Cray used - AbeCollins 23:40:33 07/26/24 (0)
    The Cray-1A serial number 3 is what they had on display at the NCAR Mesa Labs in Boulder.
    
    I believe they moved it a few years ago to the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center.
    NCAR Mesa Labs Boulder Colorado
    
    NCAR Mesa Labs Boulder Colorado
    
    NCAR Mesa Labs Boulder Colorado
    
    NCAR Mesa Labs Boulder Colorado
    
    Transporting the Cray-1A Serial Number 3 to WY
    
    Notice the Silicon Graphics ONYX computer to the far left in the photo above. Scientists used SGI ONYX for creating Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) visualizations for climate and weather modeling. SGI ONYX was sometimes called "the eyes of the Cray".
    
    Trivia: Silicon Graphics developed the hardware for the Ninendo 64. It was a ground breaking design in the 1990's that brought the most realistic 3D graphics and 64-bit computing to a gaming platform in its day. SGI also sold SGI ONYX systems to game developers.
    In 2000, Cray Inc. was formed when Tera Computer Company purchased the Cray Research Inc. business from SGI and adopted the name of its acquisition. In 2019, the company was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise for $1.3 billion.
    I hired on at SGI in Mountain View, CA in 1991. I went to Sun Microsystems in 2000. Oracle acquired Sun in 2010. I retired in 2022. I had my share of fun times.
    - Various Cray photos including several at NCAR Boulder (Open in New Window)
    Edits: 07/26/24 07/26/24 07/26/24 07/26/24

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