Lab Cancels Supercomputer in Blow to Cray

Legendary computer designer Seymour Cray’s attempt to revolutionize the way that the world’s most powerful computers are built received a stunning setback Monday when the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory canceled a $30-million order for the first Cray-3 computer from Cray Computer Corp.

Although the finished system was not scheduled for delivery until 1992, Lawrence Livermore said in a statement that because Cray Computer had missed a Dec. 9 deadline for some intermediate tests, it had chosen to exercise a contract option that allowed it to cancel the Cray-3 and instead purchase a comparably priced C-90 supercomputer from Cray Research, Seymour Cray’s old company.

Colorado Springs-based Cray Computer was formed in 1989 when Cray Research decided not to continue to fund the risky Cray-3 and instead spun the program off into a new company. The Cray-3 breaks new ground by using circuits made from gallium arsenide, which is faster than traditional silicon but much more difficult to handle.

Cray Computer Chief Executive Neil Davenport called the contract cancellation “a major surprise” and attributed it to a change in management of computer programs at the Livermore, Calif.-based weapons research facility.

“It’s obviously a major blow, but not terminal by any means,” he added. The company still has more than $65 million in cash, Davenport said, more than enough to finish the machine. Davenport said more than $200 million had been spent on the Cray-3 since its birth in 1985 at Cray Research.

Supercomputer consultant Gary Smaby noted that the first customer for any new supercomputer was extremely important, often serving as a champion for the technology and helping to work out bugs.

“In the old days, if Seymour Cray introduced a machine and it was late, customers would wait because there was nowhere else they could get the performance,” he said. “Now it’s much more competitive.”

Smaby added that the Cray-3 didn’t appear to be a better system than the C-90 and that Cray Computer was now looking to the next-generation machine, the Cray 4, to truly exploit the benefits of the gallium arsenide technology.