Seymour Cray Essay Sample

The great evolution and changes in terms of technology seen in the world today have some great and smart minds behind them. Previous intellectuals and scientists did everything possible to make the world a better place for human beings. This saw the development of computers which have ever since made the world a global village (MacKenzie, 1998). Seymour Cray, famously known as a computer architect, is among the great minds behind the development of computers. He is recognized and credited with solely being the creator of high-performance computers in the technological world (Hill et al., 2000). Seymour Cray was born on September 25, 1925 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Since his childhood days, Seymour Cray had a great interest in electrical equipment and electronics. This may have been attributed to the fact that his father was a civil engineer, and he was keen on following his father's footsteps. While at high school level, Seymour devoted much of his time to electrical engineering classes and was mostly found in the school’s electrical engineering laboratory. After his graduation from high school in the year 1943, Cray joined the US Army where he played a role in the communications department, and this gave him a chance of participating in several wars. On his return from one of the wars in Philippine Islands, Seymour was awarded a degree in Bachelor of Science Electrical Engineering by the University of Minnesota in 1950. He closely followed this achievement by getting a Master’s Degree in Applied Mathematics in 1950. At that moment, his education level earned him a job in a local company known as Engineering Research Associates where he took part in establishing specialized cryptographic equipment for the US Navy. While working at Engineering Research Associates, Seymour Cray had many achievements ranging from designing vacuum tubes, magnetic amplifiers and transistors to designing his first computer. His enhanced passion for computers led to him establishing the Control Data Corporation (CDC) in 1957. This gave him a platform and opportunity of coming up with the fastest ever scientific computer, the CDC 1604 which was fully transitioned and no longer used vacuum tubes. More awards were to follow later on and in 1968, Seymour received the W.W. McDowell Award which was issued to him by the American Foundation of Information Processing for his tireless and hard work in developing the field of computers (Murray, 1997).

Contributions to the world of computers

Notably, Seymour Cray has a number of contributions, and looking at each and every contribution of his would be important. To begin with, Seymour Cray discovered digital computers. In a step towards technological development, Seymour explored everything that he could despite the limited financial resources at his disposal at the time. In fact, during his days in college, he concentrated more on things that were digital though digital equipments at the time were not thought of or considered as computers. It is only after his graduation from college that he capitalized on the knowledge of elementary circuits with two states to venture into the world of digital computing. When he joined the Engineering Research Associates (ERA), Seymour developed digital computers which found their way into the global market. His successful designing of digital computers at ERA was attributed to the fact that he would tend to work alone in the evening in trying to avoid interruptions from other people. Computer designing is hard and cannot be done in a group, and the individualism enabled Seymour to develop one machine after another. In the beginning, Seymour got ideas, understanding and opinions from other designers. However, later on, he maximized on the feedback from the customers who bought Cray computers to develop new and digital designs. This is the reason his designs have been evolutionary and almost similar structure-wise (Null & Lobur, 2006).
Seymour’s other major achievement was the building of scientific computers at CDC, and this is considered as one of the major decisions that he had to make in his life. Although he was not among the board that formed the corporation, his technical ability and knowledge proved crucial during the formation of CDC. His clear idea w The great evolution and changes in terms of technology seen in the world today have some great and smart minds behind them. Previous intellectuals and scientists did everything possible to make the world a better place for human beings. This saw the development of computers which have ever since made the world a global village (MacKenzie, 1998). Seymour Cray, famously known as a computer architect, is among the great minds behind the development of computers. He is recognized and credited with solely being the creator of high-performance computers in the technological world (Hill et al., 2000). Seymour Cray was born on September 25, 1925 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Since his childhood days, Seymour Cray had a great interest in electrical equipment and electronics. This may have been attributed to the fact that his father was a civil engineer, and he was keen on following his father's footsteps. While at high school level, Seymour devoted much of his time to electrical engineering classes and was mostly found in the school’s electrical engineering laboratory. After his graduation from high school in the year 1943, Cray joined the US Army where he played a role in the communications department, and this gave him a chance of participating in several wars. On his return from one of the wars in Philippine Islands, Seymour was awarded a degree in Bachelor of Science Electrical Engineering by the University of Minnesota in 1950. He closely followed this achievement by getting a Master’s Degree in Applied Mathematics in 1950. At that moment, his education level earned him a job in a local company known as Engineering Research Associates where he took part in establishing specialized cryptographic equipment for the US Navy. While working at Engineering Research Associates, Seymour Cray had many achievements ranging from designing vacuum tubes, magnetic amplifiers and transistors to designing his first computer. His enhanced passion for computers led to him establishing the Control Data Corporation (CDC) in 1957. This gave him a platform and opportunity of coming up with the fastest ever scientific computer, the CDC 1604 which was fully transitioned and no longer used vacuum tubes. More awards were to follow later on and in 1968, Seymour received the W.W. McDowell Award which was issued to him by the American Foundation of Information Processing for his tireless and hard work in developing the field of computers (Murray, 1997).

Contributions to the world of computers

Notably, Seymour Cray has a number of contributions, and looking at each and every contribution of his would be important. To begin with, Seymour Cray discovered digital computers. In a step towards technological development, Seymour explored everything that he could despite the limited financial resources at his disposal at the time. In fact, during his days in college, he concentrated more on things that were digital though digital equipments at the time were not thought of or considered as computers. It is only after his graduation from college that he capitalized on the knowledge of elementary circuits with two states to venture into the world of digital computing. When he joined the Engineering Research Associates (ERA), Seymour developed digital computers which found their way into the global market. His successful designing of digital computers at ERA was attributed to the fact that he would tend to work alone in the evening in trying to avoid interruptions from other people. Computer designing is hard and cannot be done in a group, and the individualism enabled Seymour to develop one machine after another. In the beginning, Seymour got ideas, understanding and opinions from other designers. However, later on, he maximized on the feedback from the customers who bought Cray computers to develop new and digital designs. This is the reason his designs have been evolutionary and almost similar structure-wise (Null & Lobur, 2006).
Seymour’s other major achievement was the building of scientific computers at CDC, and this is considered as one of the major decisions that he had to make in his life. Although he was not among the board that formed the corporation, his technical ability and knowledge proved crucial during the formation of CDC. His clear idea was to build large scientific computers which would enhance the global shift from manual calculations to digitized calculation techniques (Hennessy & Patterson, 2011). CDC adopted Seymour’s idea and ended up building large computers which quickly made the company take over the global computer market. Despite the world's perception of need ranging from "there's no more need for large computers to we’ve got to have large computers to there’s no more need for large computers”, CDC has been able to have total control in the global computer market. In fact, new ideas such as the development of microprocessors that are considered as the most powerful by the US government have enabled CDC to keep pace with the drastic technological changes seen in the world today. Though there are several challenges facing the development of microprocessors, CDC hopes to overcome them and succeed, in the long run.
The transistor innovation is Seymour’s other great achievement. This was a new idea that he came up with while working at CDC. At that time, transistors were crucial elements in the building of computers although they were sold at high prices by companies. At some point, Seymour had exhausted all the transistors in the market, and the supply was diminishing. For this reason, he was forced to design his own transistor, the 1604 which he designed using substandard components (Patterson et al., 2007). The 1604 transistor that Seymour designed was very successful in the global market as it was unique, and the only competition it faced was from the IBM Company’s transistors. However, IBM could not offer much threat to Seymour’s innovation as it was one step behind technologically and was under poor management. Seymour’s transistor innovation evolved from the 1604 to 6600 to 7600, with each of them being successful in the global market.
The integration of the Circuit Technology in electrical components in 1972 was the other achievement of Seymour Cray. Initially, while, at CDC, all the machines that Cray designed were based on discrete components. The response he got from customers prompted him to come up with a new technology which was known as “integrated circuit” which was a collection of devices on one chip. The design of Cray Research machine ’75 used the new technology and it turned out to be more effective in terms of operation and cost as compared to the previous one where several discrete components were put together (Zelkowitz, 2008).
Apart from his achievements, Seymour Cray had several characteristics that the success of his career greatly depended on. For instance, Seymour focused on building relationships and credibility wherever he worked. At times, he beefed up security in the areas he worked as he was always willing to take lots of risks in a technical sense and thus wanted security people around him whenever he was starting a new company. Regarding the establishment of relationships, Seymour made most people he worked with to be part of his projects. This also boosted his career as he got new ideas, opinions and perceptions of the people he worked with. Most of Seymour's workmates and stakeholders were pirated from his former companies, and this was not an issue of concern as most of Seymour's former companies quickly closed down in order to prevent unnecessary competition. The other aspect about Seymour is that he had faith in himself and his abilities. He was a religious man who believed that God looks after him and that God has enabled him to leave all other insignificant responsibilities to other people. Seymour Cray had a well-established reputation with his customers at his own Cray Research. The other side of Seymour Cray is that he liked to work with and encourage young people. He attributed this to the fact that young people have a lot of enthusiasm and that most young people never have giving up as an option in their lives. In fact, in most of his workplaces, Seymour has continually developed young people (Murray, 1997).
In conclusion, Seymour Cray will always be remembered as a great architect in the technological world. This is because of the several innovative ideas he came up with and the development of various computer systems. The computer technology we enjoy today was a fruit of his hard work. More people should embrace hard work and excel in whatever career or profession they pursue.
as to build large scientific computers which would enhance the global shift from manual calculations to digitized calculation techniques (Hennessy & Patterson, 2011). CDC adopted Seymour’s idea and ended up building large computers which quickly made the company take over the global computer market. Despite the world's perception of need ranging from "there's no more need for large computers to we’ve got to have large computers to there’s no more need for large computers”, CDC has been able to have total control in the global computer market. In fact, new ideas such as the development of microprocessors that are considered as the most powerful by the US government have enabled CDC to keep pace with the drastic technological changes seen in the world today. Though there are several challenges facing the development of microprocessors, CDC hopes to overcome them and succeed, in the long run.
The transistor innovation is Seymour’s other great achievement. This was a new idea that he came up with while working at CDC. At that time, transistors were crucial elements in the building of computers although they were sold at high prices by companies. At some point, Seymour had exhausted all the transistors in the market, and the supply was diminishing. For this reason, he was forced to design his own transistor, the 1604 which he designed using substandard components (Patterson et al., 2007). The 1604 transistor that Seymour designed was very successful in the global market as it was unique, and the only competition it faced was from the IBM Company’s transistors. However, IBM could not offer much threat to Seymour’s innovation as it was one step behind technologically and was under poor management. Seymour’s transistor innovation evolved from the 1604 to 6600 to 7600, with each of them being successful in the global market.
The integration of the Circuit Technology in electrical components in 1972 was the other achievement of Seymour Cray. Initially, while, at CDC, all the machines that Cray designed were based on discrete components. The response he got from customers prompted him to come up with a new technology which was known as “integrated circuit” which was a collection of devices on one chip. The design of Cray Research machine ’75 used the new technology and it turned out to be more effective in terms of operation and cost as compared to the previous one where several discrete components were put together (Zelkowitz, 2008).
Apart from his achievements, Seymour Cray had several characteristics that the success of his career greatly depended on. For instance, Seymour focused on building relationships and credibility wherever he worked. At times, he beefed up security in the areas he worked as he was always willing to take lots of risks in a technical sense and thus wanted security people around him whenever he was starting a new company. Regarding the establishment of relationships, Seymour made most people he worked with to be part of his projects. This also boosted his career as he got new ideas, opinions and perceptions of the people he worked with. Most of Seymour's workmates and stakeholders were pirated from his former companies, and this was not an issue of concern as most of Seymour's former companies quickly closed down in order to prevent unnecessary competition. The other aspect about Seymour is that he had faith in himself and his abilities. He was a religious man who believed that God looks after him and that God has enabled him to leave all other insignificant responsibilities to other people. Seymour Cray had a well-established reputation with his customers at his own Cray Research. The other side of Seymour Cray is that he liked to work with and encourage young people. He attributed this to the fact that young people have a lot of enthusiasm and that most young people never have giving up as an option in their lives. In fact, in most of his workplaces, Seymour has continually developed young people (Murray, 1997).
In conclusion, Seymour Cray will always be remembered as a great architect in the technological world. This is because of the several innovative ideas he came up with and the development of various computer systems. The computer technology we enjoy today was a fruit of his hard work. More people should embrace hard work and excel in whatever career or profession they pursue.

References

Hennessy, J. L., & Patterson, D. A. (2011). Computer architecture: A quantitative approach. San Francisco, Calif: Morgan Kaufmann.
Hill, M. D., Jouppi, N. P., & Sohi, G. (2000). Readings in computer architecture. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann.
MacKenzie, D. A. (1998). Knowing machines: Essays on technical change. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Murray, C. J. (1997). The supermen: The story of Seymour Cray and the technical wizards behind the supercomputer. New York: Wiley.
Null, L., & Lobur, J. (2006). The essentials of computer organization and architecture. Sudbury, Mass. [u.a.: Jones and Bartlett.
Patterson, D. A., Hennessy, J. L., & Ashenden, P. J. (2007). Computer organization and design: The hardware/software interface. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann.
Zelkowitz, M. V. (2008). High performance computing. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Academic Press.