Tera bought Cray from SGI at the prodding of the NSA. First, it saved Cray from being killed by SGI. Second, it meant that the NSA only had to launder one check. :) Computer triva for for $200. What was the most successful supercomputer ever built? Answer: The Sun E10K. The E10K was designed by Cray around a sparc chip. When the sale of Cray to Sun fell through and SGI stepped in; SGI couldn't stomach having a machine based on its arch-rival's technology. SGI sold the E10k to Sun for $16M. The E10K brought in more than $1B in revenue for Sun over the next 3 years.