AI: Thomas J. Watson, Jr., Seymour Cray, and Steve Jobs Compared: Computer Titans (Part II Seymour Cray)
The New York Times quotes –
“The Cray-1 is said by computer experts to be the fastest computer ever made for scientific purposes, able to carry out in one second the work that would keep a person busy at a desk calculator for a month.”
“Steve Jobs, in a 1985 interview, when asked about the importance of design simplicity, paused, then said with a slight smile, ‘You know, Seymour Cray once said something like, ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.’ He really understood that. We try to keep that in mind at Apple.'”
“If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use: two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?”
Meaning: Cray’s analogy for his preference for a few powerful processors over many weaker ones (in the context of his time). He believed a streamlined design was more efficient for many scientific workloads.
Cray’s quotes -“One of my guiding principles is don’t do anything that other people are doing. Always do something a little different if you can. The concept is that if you do it a little differently there is a greater potential for reward than if you the same thing that other people are doing. I think that this kind of goal for one’s work, having obviously the maximum risk, would have the maximum reward no matter what the field may be.”