Cray to Use DEC Chip in New Line of Computers

Cray Research Inc., the world’s largest supercomputer maker, said Wednesday that it will use a computer chip from Digital Equipment Corp. to power the new-generation machines it plans to roll out next year.

Chairman John Rollwagen said Cray will use Digital’s Alpha chip in a radically new line of supercomputers called massively parallel processors.

Rollwagen called Digital’s chip the fastest in the world.

Cray Research shares jumped $2.125 to $46.50 in New York Stock Exchange trading. Digital was up $2.25 to $59.125 a share.

Massively parallel computers are the latest effort by the world’s supercomputer makers to reach the much sought-after tera-flop speed--a trillion calculations per second.

The most commonly used chips in the few massively parallel supercomputers currently available are Sun Microsystems Inc.’s SPARC and Intel Corp.’s i860.