Word: eta
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Going to a campus party should be a fun and safe way to spend the evening. But if the reports of a rape at the Pi Eta Club are true, this might not be the case...
...spring. In April NEC, one of Japan's three supercomputer makers, announced a machine it claims is eight times faster than the speediest Cray. A week later Cray's crosstown rival Control Data declared that after five years and $238 million in losses, it was closing its supercomputer subsidiary, ETA Systems. That left Cray as the last U.S. company still racing the Japanese for pre-eminence in what both countries view as a technology critical to the future of science and industry...
Reaction was swift. On Wall Street Cray's stock fell 10% in one day. In Japan some thought they smelled a "political maneuver." Since U.S. agencies like to have at least two bidders on any contract, the exit of ETA opened a window of opportunity for Cray's Japanese rivals. The Cray split, they suspect, may have been designed to close that window. Cray officials do not deny it. Chuckles one: "They got the message in a hurry...
...crunching power, which has become increasingly valued in applications ranging from oil exploration to the design of new drugs. Supercomputer sales are expected to reach $1.2 billion this year on shipments of 130 to 150 machines, up from $925 million in 1988. Control Data had sold 34 of its ETA- model supercomputers, or about 12% of the world's installed machines (vs. 63% for Cray...
...ETA machines offered such innovations as ultradense clusters of circuit boards cooled by liquid nitrogen, but lacked adequate software. Control Data lost about $200 million on supercomputers during the past three years, and Chairman Robert Price thinks the venture would have consumed plenty more. Said he: "Let's put it this way: there are less risky ways to bet $200 million in the computer industry...