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Just Curious

Out of boredom (or maybe insanity) I type it in to craigslist and ebay once in a blue moon but don't think I've ever found one. I once found an odd seller in San Antonio saying they had a warehouse of computers including a Cray 2 years ago but it was very odd so I never checked it out (didn't feel like driving alone to the warehouse district on a too good to be true post).

It's interesting how many supercomputers have to be out there somewhere or maybe they were all sold for scrap once the CEOs finally gave in to the current lack of value vs purchase cost. I remember a guy telling me about a haul they were about to do in SA for that very reason. They bought some huge server/mainframe for x.xMillion. Kept it, used it, upgraded it, put it in the basement and it wasn't worth more than $60K. The CEO couldn't bare parting with it for such a loss thinking it was worth SOMETHING but eventually it sat and sat until they finally had to pay this company to come remove it. Quite a shame but I guess it's how the world majority wants it to be.
 
A working one? I doubt it. Board-level repairs took some very specialized equipment. ISTR that MTTR on that system was something like 8 hours because of the necessity of draining the Fluorinert, pulling the faulty board then refilling.

I can't imagine that anyone would have the facilities to keep one going. "Bubbles" was very special.
 
Interesting info, I was just thinking it would make an excellent conversation piece w/ the bubbles going on the background :). Plus there is something special about the Cray. Aside form the technical stuff, it had that distinctive look that said "super computer". I figured they wouldn't be worth much these days maybe a couple of thousand for the recycle value and transport. But it seems like it would be very hard to find one in working condition!
 
Shadow Lord said:
Interesting info, I was just thinking it would make an excellent conversation piece w/ the bubbles going on the background :). Plus there is something special about the Cray. Aside form the technical stuff, it had that distinctive look that said "super computer". I figured they wouldn't be worth much these days maybe a couple of thousand for the recycle value and transport. But it seems like it would be very hard to find one in working condition!
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They're worth quite a bit as scrap--Cray used gold PCB interconnects "wires" in his board "sandwiches" and lots of gold plating everywhere else.

Wonder if Cash4Gold could supply a big enough envelope to stick a Cray 2 in?

The Cray 2 was an interestng machine, but I think that Steve Chen showed the way with the multiprocessor architecture (e.g. Y-MP). Monoprocessor architecture, even on the PC level it seems, is a dying concept.

I think I've still got a Cray-2 poster tucked away somewhere.
 
Chuck(G) said:
They're worth quite a bit as scrap--Cray used gold PCB interconnects "wires" in his board "sandwiches" and lots of gold plating everywhere else.

Wonder if Cash4Gold could supply a big enough envelope to stick a Cray 2 in?

The Cray 2 was an interestng machine, but I think that Steve Chen showed the way with the multiprocessor architecture (e.g. Y-MP). Monoprocessor architecture, even on the PC level it seems, is a dying concept.

I think I've still got a Cray-2 poster tucked away somewhere.
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No doubt. In terms of scalability, costs of production, ownership, maintenance etc. multi-processor systems, specially those based on off the shelf components, is the way to go. I mean the air force is using PS3s and how many colleges have server farms based on AMD CPUs? But they just are not as impressive to look at as a Cray! There is a sense of elegance, design, forward thinking, and history that the name Cray evokes.
 
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