Apple Computer purchased a big Cray supercomputer in the mid-1980s. In
fact, Steve Jobs was Cray's first and only walk-in customer. He arrived
unannounced (so the story goes) at Cray headquarters in Mendota Heights,
Minnesota, and asked to speak to someone about buying a Cray. They
nearly threw him out. It's only slightly less eccentric than someone
walking into NASA Johnson Space Center and inquiring how to purchase a
shuttle orbiter.
Later, Cray president John Rollwagen phoned Seymour and told him that
Apple had just purchased a Cray that would be used in designing the next
Macintosh. Seymour thought for a bit, and replied that that seemed
reasonable, since he was using a Macintosh to design the next Cray.
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