Following its revelation that it will come out with an air-cooled version of the Y-MP in a few weeks – the machine is expected to sell for $2m to $5m (CI No 1,394) – Cray Research Inc late last week moved to take its product line right down into the minisupercomputer arena. Cray said that it had agreement in principle to buy the Santa Clara, California-based Supertek Computers Inc, whose S-1 is a $500,000 to $1m machine compatible with the Cray X-MP, for an undisclosed sum put by analysts at between $20m and $30m. Given that Multiflow Computers Inc closed its doors only the day before (CI No 1,396) and that only Convex Computer Corp of the minisuper builders is prospering, it is likely that the venture capital backers of Supertek leaped at the chance to offload a firm that was looking an increasingly risky investment. Supertek is working on an S-2 machine compatible with the Cray Y-MP for delivery next year.
