The first Cray-2 delivered possessed more physical memory (256 MWord) than all previously delivered Cray machines combined.

Mr. Nakasone did press for Japanese purchases of Cray machines in 1987, at a time of serious trade friction over high technology purchases.

It is much easier for a company to spend $1 million than $5 million to $25 million," the going rate for Cray machines.

Most auto makers purchased Cray machines in the mid-1980's to run crash-simulation software.

The machine will reach the market sometime next year, slightly ahead of when the next-generation Cray machine, called the Cray 3, is scheduled to arrive.

However since the Cray machines did not have peripheral processors, the main central processor executed the operating system code.

(Cray machines have always had instruction caching.)

Separately, the company's founder, Seymour Cray, speaking at a recent symposium, disclosed some details of the Cray 4 machine on which his team is working.

Both planned Cray machines would be released in the early 1990's.

Computer scientists say NEC's new SX-3 supercomputer rivals the fastest Cray machine.