Cray Computer, an offshoot of the pioneering supercomputer company Cray Research founded by Seymour Cray in Chippewa Falls, Wis. in 1972, went bankrupt in 1995.

FORBES: SEC Euthanizes 397 "Dormant" Shells, Including Cray Computer, LA Gear

In 2003 he heard the tale of a cadre of crack engineers who had quit Cray Research, the old supercomputer maker, to explore bringing powerful features down to the world of cheap servers.

FORBES: The New Barbarians

The Cray XC30 supercomputer is made possible in part by Cray's participation in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) High Productivity Computing Systems program.

ENGADGET: Cray unleashes 100 petaflop XC30 supercomputer with up to a million Intel Xeon cores