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Supertek Computers

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Supertek Computers Inc.
Company typePublic
IndustryComputer
Founded1985; 39 years ago (1985)
FounderMike Fung
Defunct1990; 34 years ago (1990)
FateAcquired by Cray
ProductsSupertek S-1

Supertek Computers Inc. was a computer company founded in Santa Clara, California in 1985 by Mike Fung, an ex-Hewlett-Packard project manager, with the aim of designing and selling low-cost minisupercomputers compatible with those from Cray Research.[1]

Its first product was the Supertek S-1, a compact, air-cooled, CMOS clone of the Cray X-MP vector processor supercomputer running the CTSS (Cray Time Sharing System) operating system, and later a version of Unix. This was launched in 1989; although Supertek had raised US$21.4 million in venture capital, only $5 million of this was needed to develop the S-1.[1] Only ten units were sold before Supertek was acquired by Cray Research in 1990.[2] The S-1 was subsequently sold for a brief time by Cray as the Cray XMS.[3]

At the time of the acquisition the Supertek S-2, a clone of the Cray Y-MP, was under development. This was eventually launched as the Cray Y-MP EL in 1992.[4][5]

References

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  1. ^ a b Clark, Don (April 27, 1989). "Supertek's Minisupercomputer Clone". San Francisco Chronicle. Chronicle Publishing Company: C3 – via ProQuest.
  2. ^ Fisher, Lawrence M. (March 30, 1990). "Cray in Deal To Acquire Supertek". The New York Times: D4. Archived from the original on January 4, 2013.
  3. ^ Davis, Dudght (June 15, 1991). "Cray Research Inc". Datamation. 37 (12). Reed Business Information: 74 – via Gale.
  4. ^ Trew, Arthur; Greg Wilson, eds. (2012). Past, Present, Parallel: A Survey of Available Parallel Computer Systems. Springer London. p. 250. ISBN 9781447118428 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ "Cray Research EL-98". Rhode Island Computer Museum. 2020. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022.