Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!halley!danh
From: danh@halley.UUCP (Dan Hendrickson)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: S E Y M O U R   C R A Y  ----  Where is he ?????
Message-ID: <687@halley.UUCP>
Date: 22 Mar 90 23:03:27 GMT
References: <863@jc3b21.UUCP} <1405@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk} <RANG.90Mar17124125@derby.cs.wisc.edu}
Reply-To: danh@halley.UUCP (Dan Hendrickson)
Organization: Tandem Computers, Austin, TX
Lines: 46

In article <RANG.90Mar17124125@derby.cs.wisc.edu} rang@cs.wisc.edu (Anton Rang) writes:
}In article <1405@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk} cs86eew@cc.brunel.ac.uk (Eoin Woods) writes:
}}In article <863@jc3b21.UUCP} david@jc3b21.UUCP (David Quarles) writes:
}}}I just want to know what he is doing.  I heard that he has quit his job
}}}with Cray computers and that the stock prices have dropped about $6.00. 
}}}
}}I believe that Seymour Cray came to an agreement with Cray Research that he 
}}would leave the company to develop his ideas for the Cray III machine. His
}}new company is called Cray something too - I can't remember what the something
}}is at the moment.
}
}  The Cray III project was basically spun off into a new company, Cray
}Computers, which is in Colorado (at Cray Research's old site there, I
}believe).  I don't know the details of the arrangements; I believe
}that Cray Research will handle marketing of Cray Computer's systems.
}(I was under the impression that Cray Computers was at least partially
}owned by Cray Research, and simply under different management.)
}  Cray Research will continue developing systems as well, following up
}the X-MP and Y-MP line (which were not developed by Seymour Cray).
}

Seymour took the Cray 3 development out to Colorado Springs a couple of years
ago.  Cray Research purchased the old Inmos facility, and Seymour bought
a residence there.  (Cray Research had previously had a facility in Boulder,
not CoSpgs.)  Less than a year ago, it was announced that there
would be a split between Seymour and Cray Research, with Seymour getting
the facility and some $$.  At the end of '89, the split was made official
(the IRS had to approve some of the terms of the agreement) Stockholders
in Cray Research were given shares of the new company. Cray Research stock
has recently been trading in the $40 range, and Cray Computer has been
anywhere between $3 and $6 on the NASDAQ board.  I am unsure of any
marketing arrangements between the two companies.  Cray Research did this,
claiming that the development of the Cray 3 was too costly and risky.  My
take is that Seymour felt that Cray Res. had become too large of a
company, and that Chippewa Falls had too many computer companies in the
area.  (Eau Claire, WI, a small suburb of Chippewa (8^)) had gotten
Steve Chen, formerly of Cray Res. and "credited" with the X-MP and Y-MP,
to start his new company, SSI there).  It'll be interesting to see what
happens with Seymour.  Looking in from the outside, one would have a
lot of doubts that a company trying to develop a GaAs-based supercomputer
which costs probably around $20M would be an incredible risk, but Seymour
has a habit of being successful.

Dan Hendrickson
Tandem Computers
Austin, TX