The Cray Museum is not really the "Cray Museum" anymore, but part of the 
"Chippewa Falls museum of Industry and Technology" and is located
at 20 E. Grand Avenue, Chippewa Falls.

In the days of Cray Research the idea of a Corporate museum was well supported and space was provided in various buildings to house significant computer artifacts. The corporate museum moved a few times when the space it occupied was needed for production purposes, but after the Silicon Graphics take over it was given to the town of Chippewa Falls along with an unused Cray Research building in the centre of town. The "Chippewa Falls museum of Industry and Technology" was then established by the town to showcase the industry that Chippewa Falls has been home to over the years. <<00 Chippewa Museum.jpg>>

Companies like the Mason shoe factory and the Leinenkugels brewery are represented along with most of the artifacts from the Cray Corporate museum. Concentrating on the Cray Corporate part of the museum one finds a fascinating history of Seymour Cray's achievements. The museum contains several CDC (Control Data Corporation) systems that were designed by Seymour Cray.

1) The CDC 1604. (pictures 01 to 05)

2) The CDC 160-A. It is said that it was designed by Seymour when he was home one week with the flu and had nothing else to do. (pictures 06 to 10)

3) The CDC 6500 (pictures 11 to 15)

4) The CDC 7600 (pictures 16 to 18)

5) There is only a picture of the CDC 8600, but it has a familiar shape!
   (picture 19)

In 1972 Cray Research was founded. (picture 20)

The Cray Research machines are represented by :

5) The Cray-1 "serial number 1" : The original machine that started the company! First shipped from the Hallie Lab in 1976 to Los Alamos Scientific laboratory. Fortunately they liked the machine so much they bought it. Eventually "serial 1" would be installed at half a dozen sites where it would impress so much that customers bought one. (pictures 21 to 24)

6) The Cray X-MP : The name was apparently an "in" joke by some design guys that the 
   system would be an "eXtraordinary Multi Processor" hence "X-MP". Serial 101 was
   the first X-MP. (pictures 25 to 26)

7) The Cray-2 : What can you say ... a very sexy machine!! In the museum they 
   have a sculpture in a glass case which came from one of Seymour Cray's houses
   which it is said is his original concept for the Cray-2. (pictures 28 & 29)
   The electronics were supposed to be in the flying saucer shaped part and the 
   power supplies in the four legs. This proved too difficult to construct so 
   the design moved to a cylinder. (picture 30) This also proved a problem as 
   it was found necessary to gain access into the centre for wiring repairs. 
   The final "C" shape then evolved. (picture 31)
   Close-ups of a Cray 2 module and the control panel mounted in the centre. 
   (pictures 32 to 34) 
   Combination PDU (Power Distribution Unit) and HEU (Heat Exchange Unit). On the 
   bottom left and on most of the right side are variacs to adjust the voltages to 
   each of the columns. On the upper left side is a digital volt meter which shows
   the voltage selected by the "power supply selection" knobs below it. In the centre  
   are controls for the generator and refrigeration unit. (Picture 35)

8) Cray Y-MP : (picture 37) By the use of large scale integration a single processor
   was now contained on one module board assembly. A module can be seen in the 
   picture leaning against the system. The circuit boards were mounted on either
   side of a cold plate assembly which was hollow and cooled by passing fluorinert
   through a series of channels within the coldplate. Two of these cold plate 
   assemblies were joined together to create a single processor. The hoses attached
   to the left side of the modules were used to connect it to the fluorinert supply 
   manifold with the returning fluid, after it has cooled the module, coming out of
   the right side. This is the first version of the Y-MP which still had the old
   Model-D IOS and hence the X-MP style curved sections on either side of the 
   processor chassis to house it. Later model Y-MP systems where in regular shaped
   cabinets as the use of large scale integration techniques meant the processors
   and IO subsystem could each be produced on a single module.

9) Various Cray-3 and Cray-4 hardware. (pictures 38 to 43) These items are on
   display in glass display cases and I cannot add more than what is written on the
   labels.

10) The storeroom: (picture 44) This is interesting as you can see an X-MP chassis
    in the rear with no modules installed in its transport cradle ready to be moved. 
    In front of it are more transport cradles. These black metal frames were bolted 
    together around the chassis and at either end had wheels. Once bolted together, 
    and to the Chassis, hand pumped hydraulic jacks lifted the chassis so that it 
    could be transported on its wheels. The rest of the room is full of other old
    Cray hardware. (picture 45)

11) This is apparently the chassis they used to develop the air cooled version 
    of the T3E. (picture 46)

12) Cray-1 test unit. (picture 47) After the Cray-1 was in the field it was found 
    that they needed some sort of "box" to test the system and run diagnostics 
    in order to keep it running. These units were built to perform that function.

13) Sorry for the poor quality pictures, but the museum contains a display dedicated 
    to Seymour Cray. (Pictures 48 to 51) Of interest is the picture of the "Island 
    Street School" showing Seymour Cray at age 6.

I was most fortunate several years ago to be given a tour of the museum by Les Davies, who gives his time to the museum as a volunteer. When we came to Seymour Cray's desk (picture 52) he told me that Seymour liked his desk to be free of clutter. In the picture you can see a sign which states that this was Seymour Cray's desk and a photograph of the forest. These have been added by the museum along with the forest scene behind the desk to show that his only inspiration was the view of Chippewa from his desk. Les Davis said that when ever you walked past his office and Seymour was not in you only ever saw the work book and a pencil and both items were always lined up parallel.     
A picture I am very proud of...(picture 53) After Les Davies finished giving his tour of the museum I got him to pose for me in front of Serial 1.

16) Old Cray Corporate Museum brochures. There are two brochures here. One I picked
    up in 1991 and another from 1992. (pictures 54 to 59) These date back to when 
    the museum was part of Cray Research and was housed in one of its buildings.