Amazon.com
The story of supercomputing is only partially about technology. More than anything, it's about the gifted, brilliant, and often eccentric individuals who knew how to use that technology in new ways to do amazing things. Perhaps the most amazing of the bunch was Seymour Cray, the bureaucracy-intolerant genius with the barnstorming mind whose name has become synonymous with supercomputers. Charles Murray gives us an insightful and often thrilling and sometimes amusing look into how Cray and his genius companions took computers to new heights and humbled companies like Control Data and IBM.
From Publishers Weekly
Before Bill Gates ever tinkered with an operating system, one name represented the cutting edge of computing technology: Seymour Cray. He pioneered the supercomputer and honed that edge through each model he engineered, including those built under the auspices of two companies he founded-Control Data Corporation and Cray Research. In this engrossing study, Murray, a senior editor at Design News magazine, follows the development and influence of the supercomputer from its origins as a WWII codebreaking machine through its Cold War application in developing nuclear weapons to its modern-day uses in weather research and other fields. Along the way, he shows clearly how the supercomputer brought us from the age of punchcards and vacuum tubes to that of transistors and, now, silicon chips. Drawing from extensive interviews, including the final one Cray gave before his death earlier this year from injuries sustained in a car crash, Murray also explores the personal side of the engineer, whose reputation as a brilliant, anti-corporate workaholic gave him legendary status in the computer industry. Murray's prose emphasizes information over liveliness, but his book, with its balanced mix of biography, history and technology, should interest more general readers as well as the digerati. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Though it strives to tell an exciting, fast-paced story of the development of the supercomputer?as Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine (Avon, 1982) did so well with the minicomputer?this work falls flat, fast. Murray, a senior editor at an engineering magazine, recounts the story of the mad race, started in the midst of the Eisenhower years, to develop a supercomputer under the sui generis genius Seymour Cray. But the book is unfortunately larded with comments reflecting what is certainly the author's ulterior motive: to show how corporate management and bureaucracy inevitably muck up the best efforts of computer gods like Cray and his whiz-kid engineers. Murray's arguments are hardly convincing, and they detract from the main story. The writing is annoyingly gleeful and hagiographic; what engineers think up is "absolutely mind-numbing," and their computers are "awesomely fast." University libraries should take a pass; marginally recommended for other, flush, libraries.?Robert C. Ballou, AtlantaCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Upside, Eric Nee
This is a book about one of the computer industry's legends, Seymour Cray. It's a modest book--232 pages of straightforward journalism--but one worth reading because of Cray's importance to the industry. Cray played with the edges by creating computers which became so fast they could simulate life itself. As if this weren't enough, the story of Cray is also, in some important respects, the story of the computer industry. He not only built some of the earliest computers, but he helped create some of the cultural characteristics we now routinely associate with the industry, such as informal dress codes and small, empowered teams. The book is also useful because it provides yet another clear example of why the federal government should continue to play a role in funding pioneering scientific work. Without the federal government's R&D money and its willingness to purchase many of the first supercomputers developed, the industry would have evolved much more slowly. Having this ready market was a critical reason engineers were willing to leave existing companies and start up new ones. I recommend this book, a quick and entertaining read, to anyone who wants to better understand the genesis of the computer industry.
From Kirkus Reviews
The name Cray is to the computer world what Ferrari is to the automotive world: a synonym for sheer speed and engineering bravado. Here's the story of the man behind the name, from Murray, a senior editor at Design News. Seymour Cray was among the young WW II vets who found an engineering job at Minnesota-based ERA, one of the companies that grew up in response to the continuing military demand for advanced computers. He was almost immediately recognized as a genius. Cray combined a quick grasp of theory with the willingness to sit and hard-wire his own circuits. It was his recognition, in 1954, that transistor technology allowed both greater speed and reliability that catapulted him into the front rank of industrial genius. Moving to the newly founded Control Data Company, at age 35 Cray produced the CDC 1604, the fastest machine ever built. Impatient with the corporate rituals of meetings, lunches, and political maneuvering, Cray soon moved CDC's research facilities to Chippewa Falls, Minn., and continued to design faster and faster machines. His design philosophy was unique: He insisted on building every new computer from the ground up, while resisting the temptation to base his designs on untried technology. Eventually his independence led him away from CDC to found Cray Research. The Cray 1, the first computer to adopt integrated-circuit technology, became the instant standard by which all other machines were judged. But by 1989, Cray's maverick ways led him to split from his own company, searching for even faster and better computers. By then, though, the loss of Cold War funding had changed the economic landscape; there were no longer customers willing to pay whatever it cost to get the fastest possible machine. The Cray 4, his last completed design, never reached the marketplace. Murray tells the story of Cray compellingly, and few readers will be able to close the book without a regret at the passing of an age when such independent giants could rule the world. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Book News, Inc.
Tells the story of how Cray, described as the Evel Knievel of supercomputing, and his colleagues paved the way for the Information Age, drawing on interviews, including the last interview Cray gave before his death. Includes b&w photos. -- Copyright © 1999 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR All rights reserved
Book Description
The SUPERMEN
"After a rare speech at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, in 1976, programmers in the audience had suddenly fallen silent when Cray offered to answer questions. He stood there for several minutes, waiting for their queries, but none came. When he left, the head of NCAR's computing division chided the programmers. 'Why didn't someone raise a hand?' After a tense moment, one programmer replied, 'How do you talk to God?'" -from The SUPERMEN The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards behind the Supercomputer
"They were building revolutionary, not evolutionary, machines. . . . They were blazing a trail-molding science into a product. . . . The freedom to create was extraordinary." -from The Supermen
In 1951, a soft-spoken, skinny young man fresh from the University of Minnesota took a job in an old glider factory in St. Paul. Computer technology would never be the same, for the glider factory was the home of Engineering Research Associates and the recent college grad was Seymour R. Cray. During his extraordinary career, Cray would be alternately hailed as "the Albert Einstein," "the Thomas Edison," and "the Evel Knievel" of supercomputing. At various times, he was all three-a master craftsman, inventor, and visionary whose disdain for the rigors of corporate life became legendary, and whose achievements remain unsurpassed.
The Supermen is award-winning writer Charles J. Murray's exhilarating account of how the brilliant-some would say eccentric-Cray and his gifted colleagues blazed the trail that led to the Information Age. This is a thrilling, real-life scientific adventure, deftly capturing the daring, seat-of-the-pants spirit of the early days of computer development, as well as an audacious, modern-day David and Goliath battle, in which a group of maverick engineers beat out IBM to become the runaway industry leaders.
Murray's briskly paced narrative begins during the final months of the Second World War, when men such as William Norris and Howard Engstrom began researching commercial applications for the code-breaking machines of wartime, and charts the rise of technological research in response to the Cold War. In those days computers were huge, cumbersome machines with names like Demon and Atlas. When Cray came on board, things quickly changed.
Drawing on in-depth interviews-including the last interview Cray completed before his untimely and tragic death-Murray provides rare insight into Cray's often controversial approach to his work. Cray could spend exhausting hours in single-minded pursuit of a particular goal, and Murray takes us behind the scenes to witness late-night brainstorming sessions and miraculous eleventh-hour fixes. Cray's casual, often hostile attitude toward management, although alienating to some, was more than a passionate need for independence; he simply thought differently than others. Seymour Cray saw farther and faster, and trusted his vision with an unassailable confidence. Yet he inspired great loyalty as well, making it possible for his own start-up company, Cray Research, to bring the 54,000-employee conglomerate of Control Data to its knees.
Ultimately, The Supermen is a story of genius, and how a unique set of circumstances-a small-team approach, corporate detachment, and a government-backed marketplace-enabled that genius to flourish. In an atmosphere of unparalleled freedom and creativity, Seymour Cray's vision and drive fueled a technological revolution from which America would emerge as the world's leader in supercomputing.
The publisher, John Wiley & Sons
The Supermen offers the first up-close-and-personal profile of Seymour Cray, the brilliant and reputedly eccentric designer of the world's fastest computers. This is the story of a technical genius who, against all odds, created a series of machines that revolutionized the computing industry. Chronicling each major breakthrough, Murray takes us behind the scenes to witness late-night brainstorming sessions, miraculous eleventh-hour fixes, and flashes of insight when bold new ideas were cooked up. Drawing from rare in-depth interviews with Seymour Cray, Murray gives us an unparalleled portrait of the man and his methods, reporting not only Cray's personal reflections, but the recollections of his closest colleagues and the truth behind the rumors.
Back Cover Copy
The SUPERMEN
"After a rare speech at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, in 1976, programmers in the audience had suddenly fallen silent when Cray offered to answer questions. He stood there for several minutes, waiting for their queries, but none came. When he left, the head of NCAR's computing division chided the programmers. 'Why didn't someone raise a hand?' After a tense moment, one programmer replied, 'How do you talk to God?'" —from The SUPERMEN The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards behind the Supercomputer
"They were building revolutionary, not evolutionary, machines. . . . They were blazing a trail—molding science into a product. . . . The freedom to create was extraordinary." —from The Supermen
In 1951, a soft-spoken, skinny young man fresh from the University of Minnesota took a job in an old glider factory in St. Paul. Computer technology would never be the same, for the glider factory was the home of Engineering Research Associates and the recent college grad was Seymour R. Cray. During his extraordinary career, Cray would be alternately hailed as "the Albert Einstein," "the Thomas Edison," and "the Evel Knievel" of supercomputing. At various times, he was all three—a master craftsman, inventor, and visionary whose disdain for the rigors of corporate life became legendary, and whose achievements remain unsurpassed.
The Supermen is award-winning writer Charles J. Murray's exhilarating account of how the brilliant—some would say eccentric—Cray and his gifted colleagues blazed the trail that led to the Information Age. This is a thrilling, real-life scientific adventure, deftly capturing the daring, seat-of-the-pants spirit of the early days of computer development, as well as an audacious, modern-day David and Goliath battle, in which a group of maverick engineers beat out IBM to become the runaway industry leaders.
Murray's briskly paced narrative begins during the final months of the Second World War, when men such as William Norris and Howard Engstrom began researching commercial applications for the code-breaking machines of wartime, and charts the rise of technological research in response to the Cold War. In those days computers were huge, cumbersome machines with names like Demon and Atlas. When Cray came on board, things quickly changed.
Drawing on in-depth interviews—including the last interview Cray completed before his untimely and tragic death—Murray provides rare insight into Cray's often controversial approach to his work. Cray could spend exhausting hours in single-minded pursuit of a particular goal, and Murray takes us behind the scenes to witness late-night brainstorming sessions and miraculous eleventh-hour fixes. Cray's casual, often hostile attitude toward management, although alienating to some, was more than a passionate need for independence; he simply thought differently than others. Seymour Cray saw farther and faster, and trusted his vision with an unassailable confidence. Yet he inspired great loyalty as well, making it possible for his own start-up company, Cray Research, to bring the 54,000-employee conglomerate of Control Data to its knees.
Ultimately, The Supermen is a story of genius, and how a unique set of circumstances—a small-team approach, corporate detachment, and a government-backed marketplace—enabled that genius to flourish. In an atmosphere of unparalleled freedom and creativity, Seymour Cray's vision and drive fueled a technological revolution from which America would emerge as the world's leader in supercomputing.
About the Author
Charles J. Murray is a senior editor at Design News magazine. He has written on the computer industry and information technology for the Chicago Tribune and Popular Science, and he was the recipient of the 1994 Jesse H. Neal Editorial Achievement Award. Mr. Murray lives in Park Ridge, Illinois.
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