Company:Supertek Computers

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Short description: American computer company
Supertek Computers Inc.
TypePublic
IndustryComputer
FateAcquired by Cray
Founded1985; 39 years ago (1985)
FounderMike Fung
Defunct1990; 34 years ago (1990)
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

  1. 1.0 1.1 Clark, Don (April 27, 1989). "Supertek's Minisupercomputer Clone". San Francisco Chronicle (Chronicle Publishing Company): C3. https://www.proquest.com/docview/302355825/. 
  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. http://archive.today/2013.01.04-065609/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/30/business/cray-in-deal-to-acquire-supertek.html. 
  3. Davis, Dudght (June 15, 1991). "Cray Research Inc.". Datamation (Reed Business Information) 37 (12): 74. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A10903814/GPS?sid=wikipedia. 
  4. Trew, Arthur, ed (2012). Past, Present, Parallel: A Survey of Available Parallel Computer Systems. Springer London. p. 250. ISBN 9781447118428. https://books.google.com/books?id=HZzeBwAAQBAJ. 
  5. "Cray Research EL-98". Rhode Island Computer Museum. 2020. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20221207033607/https://www.ricomputermuseum.org/collections-gallery/equipment/cray-research-el-98.