[rescue] Cheapest Cray?

[Steve Hatle]

On 4/27/04 11:51 AM, "Dave McGuire" wrote:


> 
>  That part of it is a Seymour Cray design.  Those wires are
> length-adjusted for signal skew, and they're normally locked up inside
> the chassis of the machine anyway.  Did you get a chance to see the
> backplane of my pdp11/70 while you were here?
> 
>        -Dave


A buddy worked at Cray here in Minneapolis back in the hey-day, and he took
me on a tour of the "Big Floor" where they had at least one of everything
Cray had made. [0]

They had some of the machines open, with the spaghetti of wiring exposed.
When I made a comment about it, my buddy told me that in the assembly area,
these ladies would be arm-deep in the cabinets attaching the wires, and then
the lunch bell would ring. They would go away for their hour lunch break,
and then come back, take a 5 second look at the frame, and go right back to
attaching/punching wires. He had no idea how they could keep track of
things... Maybe he was pulling my leg, but I don't think so.

Steve

[0] Apparently at this point, Cray Park is a ghost town. I don't know what,
if any, of the machines are still there and/or functional. My buddy said
that when he got his initial tour of the campus and the buildings after he
was hired, his guide jokingly remarked "This would make a great Bible
college someday". It could be sadly prophetic.