Computer, Super, Cray-1, CPU
name: label: Manufacturer
content: Cray Research, Inc.
notes: label: Summary
content: This is a CRAY-1, an early example of a class of computers called "supercomputers." It was built by Cray Research, Inc. of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and installed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. Unlike most computers, it was hand-wired, and its circuits were arranged in a three-quarters circle. Both helped increase the speeds at which signals travel from one part of the computer to another. Hefty power supplies are located below each of the circuit bays, and the padding on them suggests a piece of lounge furniture.
label: Summary
content: At NCAR, the machine was used between 1977 and 1983, where it performed complex calculations involving the numerical modeling of weather phenomena. As the speeds of ordinary workstations increased over the years, it became obsolete and was donated to the Smithsonian.
place: label: Country of Origin
content: United States of America
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Air and Space Museum Collection
label: Location
content: National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
label: Exhibition
content: One World Connected
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Cray Research, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Air and Space Museum
identifier: label: Inventory Number
content: A19880565000
objectType: label: Type
content: INSTRUMENTS-Computers, General Purpose
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Materials
content: Frame: Aluminum, with circuit boards attached. Wires in interior.
label: Dimensions
content: 3-D: 144.8 × 139.7 × 195.6cm, 1730.5kg (4 ft. 9 in. × 4 ft. 7 in. × 6 ft. 5 in., 3815lb.)