DigiBarn TV: Cray-1 Supercomputer featured in movie "Tron" (1982)

DigiBarn TV:
Cray featured in Disney movie "Tron" (1982)

Tron poster from 1982

Elements of the 1982 Disney film "Tron" were rendered on a leased Cray-1 Supercomputer. In honor of the Cray's contribution to the film, it had a cameo sequence in the film. A Cray-1 was used in the following scene shot at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories in California (where many of the other parts of the film were shot). In an MPG extract from the film and stills below, you can see the protagonists walking through a lab, with the Cray 1 in the foreground. The distinctive red/green/blue paneling of our Cray (#38) is shown. One panel is replaced by the typical plexiglass "see thru" option. Note that this segment and images are © 1982 Walt Disney Productions.

Researching this further, in an email with Otis Walton and Jean Shuler of Lawrence Livermore Labs, we determined that our Cray (serial #38) was not actually in the building where the Tron filming was done, but was in another building at Livermore at the same time. The email exchange follows...

Thu, 27 Oct 2005

Otis and Bruce,

Serial #38 was in the LC Computer center. - I think in Bldg 113. I will ask the folks who dug up the information about the MFECC Cray 1.

Jean

Jean,
Thanks for your effort! I appreciate the information and will let Bruce know that his machine wasn't at NMFECC when Tron was filmed. Just curious, is it possible to find out where #38 was located when it was at LLNL? (Since I am sure Bruce would like to be able to tell visitors at the museum that the particular machine they are looking at was used for . . . (e.g. classified calculations, or whatever . . .) at LLNL. He can, of course, tell visitors that a Cray 1 just like it was at NMFECC).

Hi Otis,
Lots of former NMFECC people who are still here (and some retirees) did some investigation and here is the information. Several of the folks have a coffee mug from Cray for our "B" machine acceptance that said the serial numbers of the MFECC Cray-1 machines were #6 & #33. The Y-MP was #119. So NMFECC did not have serial #38 in our machine room for the filming of Tron.
Jean

	MPEG Movie Segment (2MB)
	Still Images of segment
DSC09622.JPG	DSC09618.JPG	DSC09623.JPG
DSC09624.JPG	DSC09617.JPG	DSC09625.JPG
DSC09616.JPG	DSC09615.JPG	DSC09627.JPG
DSC09614.JPG	DSC09628.JPG	DSC09629.JPG
	The Cray-1 at Lawrence Livermore Labs' NMFECC
Possible picture of Cray 1 at Livermore	Compare blue tape cabinet on left with possible livermore shot	Cray 1 at Livermore (along with CDC 7600)

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