Three Cray supercomputers from the 1990s are up for sale at auction.

As reported by Tom’s Hardware and others, RWB Auctions Limited is listing three Cray supercomputers for auction with the Saleroom.

RWB said the supercomputers come from Dan Goldsmith, “a self-confessed IT nerd.”

According to a post on Cray History, Goldsmith stored the systems at the offices of his IT workstation company, Amari Ltd., in Watford, where he would occasionally allow visitors.

"I was a bit of an IT nerd growing up. I was offered this old mainframe as a joke because nobody thought I'd actually take it,” said Goldsmith, “But I did, and I ran it in my home for about three years. I could only have it switched on for half an hour at a time because the room got too hot!"

Goldsmith said he has decided that the time is right to sell the supercomputers to the next generation of Cray enthusiasts, with the intention of them being preserved for future generations.

He continued: "These machines completely changed the direction of supercomputing. When I first read about them as a teenager, they felt almost mythical. To actually own them was something I never imagined would happen."

The Cray Supercomputers auction includes the first Cray T3D. Named Typhoon, the system was installed at the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre at the University of Edinburgh and ranked as the fastest supercomputer in Europe in the Top500’s June 1996 ranking.

The ‘tomato red’ system is configured as a single-cabinet Cray T3D-MC512, equipped with 512 DEC Alpha 21064 150MHz compute processors and liquid cooling using Fluorinert.

The listing notes the 771kg system originally served as Cray’s internal development machine, and was therefore fitted with a unique wiring configuration that allowed staged upgrades from 256 to 320 and finally to the full complement of 512 compute processors.

Ranking as the 22nd most powerful system globally at its peak, with 76.8 gigaflops of performance, Typhoon last appeared in the Top500’s rankings in June 1999.

The system reportedly would have cost around $15 million when new. Starting bids on this machine are £60,000 ($80,672).

Also available is a Cray Y-MP4E. The hardware – featuring two cabinets with three Cray parallel vector processors – served as the front-end system for the Edinburgh Cray T3D and is painted in a matching red.

With an opening bid of £2,400 ($3,227), RWB said the system “represents a compelling opportunity for collectors and institutions interested in the history of scientific and technical computing.”

Also available is a Cray Triton T-932. This full 32-processor configuration is reportedly one of only approximately 20 units manufactured and understood to be one of just three surviving T932 systems.

This 4,000kg system was reportedly installed originally at GCHQ. Acquired without boards, it was subsequently rebuilt by Goldsmith over a two-year period in collaboration with Cray Inc. to restore its rare full 32-processor configuration. Costing around $39 million at launch, bids for this system start at £40,000 ($53,785).

At the time of writing, none of the systems have received any bids. The auction is due to end on 31 May at 6pm BST.

Gareth Wasp, RWB Head Auctioneer, said: “This is one of the most unusual collections we’ve handled at RWB Auctions. The historical significance of the machines, alongside Dan’s personal story and the effort that has gone into preserving them over the years, makes this a really fascinating sale. We're expecting interest from collectors and institutions both in the UK and internationally."

Though rare, historical supercomputers do occasionally come to auction. The vast collection of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen went to auction in 2024, and included early computers from the likes of IBM, Control Data Corporation (CDC), and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), as well as early Apple computers and a WW2 Enigma cipher machine.

A Cray-1 system from 1976-1978 from the collection sold for just over $1 million. A Cray-2 from 1985 sold for $176,400. A CDC 6500 supercomputer sold for $252,000.

The Enigma machine sold for $718,000. The Apple-1 Computer sold for $352,000, while an Apple-1 Personal Computer went for $945,000.

RWB said Allen’s auction included a Cray supercomputer that broke the record for the highest hammer price for any historic computer sold at auction.

Update: The T3D sold for £65,000. The Triton T-932 sold for £48,000. And the Y-MP4E went for £13,000.