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Principals
- Albert Koval • Allan
Torres • Jeanne Koval
Albert Koval first
knew he wanted to meet Seymour Cray in 1979 after reading
an article
in Popular Science magazine about Seymour's
eccentric work style and the Cray-1 supercomputer at Los Alamos Scientific
Laboratory.
Working as a video producer in Albuquerque, NM in the early 1980's, Albert became interested in using supercomputers and expert systems for digital video editing. It was at that time that Albert and Allan first met, when Allan was working for Cray Research, and three video programs for Cray resulted: a short on supercomputer graphics incorporating early test footage for TRON, the second detailing the site planning necessary to successfully install a Cray X/MP computer, and the third, an employee orientatation program called Change which included interviews with company founders and a brief history of the founding of CRI.
Albert first met Seymour in 1985 in Chippewa Falls, WI when he was granted the opportunity to interview him, the first of only two videotaped interviews Seymour gave during his life. The goal to meet Seymour was replaced by a new goal to work for him.
In 1987, Albert's interest in supercomputers and expert systems led to a contract working for CRI in Boulder, CO to build a prototype diagnostic expert system for the Cray X-MP. In 1988 he joined the Cray-3 project in Colorado Springs as a diagnostic expert systems engineer.
In 1991, Albert and the Intelligent Systems Group, a small team of expert systems and diagnostic engineers, first achieved industry-milestone 500mhz operation with the Cray-3 foreground processor to meet the first contract milestone with Livermore. The intelligent systems group collectively contributed a number of expert systems tools to the Cray-3 project, including a IC mask configuration expert which reduced a 2-day optimization/planning task to under 15 seconds.
Since CRI and Cray Computer Corporation, Mr. Koval has worked as a consultant and Director for various companies in Silicon Valley including Apple, Amdahl, Sun, Fujitsu, Aspect Communications, Legato, and EMC, on projects ranging from the Apple Media Tool to leading storage industry certifications.
He has continued to develop his expert system for video production, called EVE™, which is being used for the production of the Seymour Cray documentary. It has been Albert's personal goal for 20 years to produce a documentary about Seymour Cray, to share this incredible man's history and legacy with the world. He is currently knee-deep in HD video, RAIDs and SANs, and learning the finer points of Final Cut Studio, XML metadata, video codecs and wavelets.
Allan
Torres began his career at Cray Research, Inc. in 1979 when he was
hired at Cray as an I/O Design and Prototype Engineer in Chippewa Falls, WI.
While there,
he worked with the teams that built and shipped the Cray-1A and Cray-1S machines
(and later the Cray-2). In 1980 Allan moved to the position of Field Engineer
and was “shipped out” with one of the first Cray-1A Systems to
a government site in New Mexico.
With his unique background in sales as well as engineering, it was not long
before Mr. Torres was asked to become a Cray Salesman. His desire and drive
to extol the virtues of vector processors and his pride in CRI drove him to
sell the world on these "World’s Fastest Systems". Allan worked
as a Cray salesman from 1981 until 1986. His customers and associates were
truly a “Who’s
Who” of supercomputing customers, including Los Alamos National Laboratories,
Sandia National Laboratories, the National Center for Atmospheric Research,
DOD, Intelligence Agencies and many others.
Since leaving Cray Research, Inc, Allan has remained in HPC sales and marketing
for a number of companies, including Thinking Machines Corporation, NEC, Cray
Inc., and he writes for HPCwire, Supercomputing
Online and other high performance computing publications.
Allan’s respect for Seymour Cray, as well as his passion and devotion to High Performance Computing inspired him to conceive of and execute the 30th anniversary Supercomputing '05 tribute to Seymour Cray.
Jeanne Koval has an extensive background working in research and academic environments in an administrative capacity as well as in the publication of scientific journals, articles, textbooks and instructional videos. Her first exposure to Cray was when she helped to produce a video walking tour for the Scientific Computing Division at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. She later went to work at NCAR, where she worked closely with some of the world’s leading atmospheric scientists. Ms. Koval has worked in typesetting, proofreading, editing, and project management for employers and clients including Apple Computer, USC, University of New Mexico, NOAA, Cray Computer Corporation, and other academic and research centers throughout the world.
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