From "Napiers Bones" to "Supercomputers"
350 years before being superseded
John Napier was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer and astrologer.
He introduced the decimal point into common usage.
He created "Napiers Bones" a series of marked blocks ("rods" or "bones")
These where aligned as a means of easy multiplication.
In 1614 he published "Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio" and introduced "natural logarithm tables" to the world.
"Log tables" were in common use until the mid 1970's when electronic calculators replaced them.
John Napier (1550-1617)
Cray 2 with water cooling towerSeymour Cray's SuperComputers
In 1950 Seymour Cray started work at ERA where he established himself as one of the formost experts in digital computing.
In 1958 he joined CDC where he designed the CDC 1604 and CDC 6600.
In 1972 he formed Cray Research.
Cray optimised the complete system, not just the processor and the resulting machines outperformed everything else.
They also looked fantastic.
"The original overclocker"
A Device at random.
This month in History.
1894
5th
August Dvorak Born
1908
23rd
John Bardeen Born
1913
20th
William Hewlett Born
1917
17th
William Thomas Tutte Born
1923
12th
Eugene Kleiner Born
1926
31st
John George Kemeny Born
1930
11th
Edsger Dijkstra Born
1932
31st
Jay Miner Born
1940
19th
Alan Kay Born
1941
19th
Gary Kildall Born
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