Where we know of a reference, we list it. The following UNVERIFIED quotes have been widely attributed to Seymour R. Cray. There are many different versions of these quotes on the internet, along with many others that just don't seem plausible.

We'd like to hear from anyone who has additional information on the authenticity of any of these quotes to help set the record straight.

"Parity is for farmers."

- This quote is usually seen as Seymour referring to the original Cray-1 serial 1, which was delivered to Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory on a six month trial. However, in his excellent book A Few Good Men From Univac, author David E. Lundstrom recounts the story as Seymour speaking to a visitor to the Control Data Arden Hills lab who asked why Seymour didn't design memory parity into the original CDC 6600. A sometimes seen variant of this quote is "Parity is for dirt farmers".

"Farmers buy a lot of computers."

- This quote is attributed to Seymour when he was asked why he subsequently agreed to put error-correction into the Cray-1, beginning with serial 3 which went to NCAR. Starting with serial 3, the Cray-1 frame was approximately 8 inches taller, to accommodate the extra modules and circuitry required to add Single-bit Error Correction/Double-bit Error Detection (SECDED) to the Cray-1 memory. Cray-1 serial 2 was scrapped out. The story has it that it was Les Davis who actually designed in error correction.

"If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use? Two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?"

- Comparing fast single processors to massively parallel systems. Seymour later settled on a design incorporating Intel microprocessors into his first system at SRC Computers, but he died shortly thereafter before his design could be realized.

"Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast system."

- Speaking on the importance of balancing memory, bandwidth & throughput.

"Virtual memory leads to virtual performance."

- On why Seymour refused to offer virtual memory in his designs. This design limitation forced programmers to think about ways to optimize the performance of their software, which in turn optimized codes and reduced I/O.

"Memory is like sex, it's better when it's real."

- this one seems out of character for Seymour, the above quote seems more likely.

"The trouble with programmers is that you can never tell what a programmer is doing until it's too late."

- It seems entirely plausible that a wry Seymour might have said this!