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Cray Q2 Supercomputer prototype


The Cray Q2

The Digibarn has in its collection a very rare Cray Q2 Supercomputer which is the prototype in between the Cray 1 and Cray 2. The Cray-2 series began with Q1, then Q2 and then the production units at serial numbers 2001, 2002 etc. The Cray Q1 has not been located and is likely to have been destroyed.


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Anonymous contributor of information about the Cray-1 series (via Tony Cole)

I was one of the field Engineers for Cray-2 Serial Numbers Q1, 2001, 2024, 2101. The heat generated by the Cray-2 is so great that normal air or water cooling is not sufficient. Cray solved this problem by immersing the Cray-2 in 200 gallons of blue, bubbling super-cooled fluorinert.

Fluorinert is clear, tasteless, and inert. Because it can be Oxygenated, it has been used as artificial blood. The Cray-2 was not supercooled. The Fluorinert was cooled by the building chilled water system. The system ran at about 72F. Seymour knew that to make computers faster, wires need to be shortened. Can't be done if there are cold plate, or fins in the way to force the modules further apart. So, to get rid of the cold plates, as used in the Cray-1, he eliminated them, and used direct liquid cooling. Fluorinert is still made by 3M today.

Know anything more about the Cray Q2 Supercomputer? Contact Us!

See Also:


See the Q2 at the Minnesota Supercomputer Center
(in 1986)

Brad Blasing on the Cray Q2
and Cray 1

Cray Q2's journey to and return from Lawrence Livermore Labs in 2002

Our Cray 1 and other Cray artifacts at the DigiBarn

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