Established in 1998 by the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors, the Seymour Cray Award is given each year to individuals whose innovative contributions to high-performance computing systems best exemplify the creative spirit demonstrated by the late Seymour Cray. The award includes a crystal model, certificate, and honorarium of $10,000. Steven Wallach will accept the award on November 20 at Supercomputing 2008, the annual high-performance computing conference, to be held November 15-21 in Austin, Texas. In addition he will give a plenary presentation on Wednesday, November 19th at the conference.

Steven Wallach is specifically named for his "contribution to high-performance computing through design of innovative vector and parallel computing systems, notably the Convex mini-supercomputer series, a distinguished industrial career and acts of public service".

"This is one of our industry's greatest honours and I am deeply honoured", stated Steven Wallach, Chief Scientist for Convey Computer Corporation. "At Convex Computer Corporation, and now at Convey we are showing that you can have a highly productive software environment coupled with high performance computing. I have always believed that the machine that is simplest to program will ultimately win."

Previous recipients of the Seymour Cray Award include John Cocke, Glen Culler, John L. Hennessy, Monty Denneau, Burton J. Smith, William J. Dally, Steven L. Scott, Tadashi Watanabe and Ken Batcher.

Steven Wallach is a founder of Convey Computer Corporation and is an adviser to venture capital firms CenterPoint Ventures, Sevin-Rosen and InterWest Partners. He is also a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Simulation and Computing Programme at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Previously he was vice president of technology for Chiaro Networks Ltd. and was co-founder of Convex Computer Corporation, its chief technology officer and senior vice president of development.