Control Data Corporation (CDC) was a mainframe and supercomputer firm. CDC was one of the nine major United States computer companies through most of the 1960s; the others were IBM,

Burroughs Corporation The Burroughs Corporation was a major American manufacturer of business equipment. The company was founded in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company. In 1986, it merged with Sperry UNIVAC to form Unisys. The company's history paralleled many ...

, DEC, NCR,

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

, and

UNIVAC UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company an ...

. CDC was well-known and highly regarded throughout the industry at the time. For most of the 1960s,

Seymour Cray Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925 – October 5, 1996
) was an American

Cray Research Cray Inc., a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is an American supercomputer manufacturer headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It also manufactures systems for data storage and analytics. Several Cray supercomputer systems are listed ...

(CRI) in the 1970s. After several years of losses in the early 1980s, in 1988 CDC started to leave the computer manufacturing business and sell the related parts of the company, a process that was completed in 1992 with the creation of Control Data Systems, Inc. The remaining businesses of CDC currently operate as

Ceridian Ceridian HCM is an American provider of human resources software and services with employees in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and Mauritius. It is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. History Ceridian is a descenda ...

Background and origins: World War II–1957

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

had built up a classified team of engineers to build codebreaking machinery for both

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

electro-mechanical ciphers. A number of these were produced by a team dedicated to the task working in the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, area. With the post-war wind-down of military spending, the Navy grew increasingly worried that this team would break up and scatter into various companies, and it started looking for ways to keep the code-breaking team together. Eventually they found their solution: John Parker, the owner of a

Chase Aircraft The Chase Aircraft Company, founded in 1943, was an American aircraft manufacturer, primarily constructing assault gliders and military transport aircraft. Lacking space for expansion, the company was purchased by Henry J. Kaiser in 1951. Plans ...

affiliate named Northwestern Aeronautical Corporation located in St. Paul, Minnesota, was about to lose all his contracts due to the ending of the war. The Navy never told Parker exactly what the team did, since it would have taken too long to get top secret clearance. Instead they simply said the team was important, and they would be very happy if he hired them all. Parker was obviously wary, but after several meetings with increasingly high-ranking Naval officers it became apparent that whatever it was, they were serious, and he eventually agreed to give this team a home in his

military glider Military gliders (an offshoot of common gliders) have been used by the militaries of various countries for carrying troops ( glider infantry) and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the Second World War. These engineless aircraft wer ...

factory. The result was

Engineering Research Associates Engineering Research Associates, commonly known as ERA, was a pioneering computer firm from the 1950s. ERA became famous for their numerical computers, but as the market expanded they became better known for their drum memory systems. They were ev ...

(ERA). Formed in 1946, this contract engineering company worked on a number of seemingly unrelated projects in the early 1950s. Among these was the ERA Atlas, an early military

stored program A stored-program computer is a computer that stores program instructions in electronically or optically accessible memory. This contrasts with systems that stored the program instructions with plugboards or similar mechanisms. The definition ...

computer, the basis of the Univac 1101, which was followed by the 1102, and then the 36-

bit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represente ...

ERA 1103 The UNIVAC 1103 or ERA 1103, a successor to the UNIVAC 1101, was a computer system designed by Engineering Research Associates and built by the Remington Rand corporation in October 1953. It was the first computer for which Seymour Cray was credi ...

(

UNIVAC 1103 The UNIVAC 1103 or ERA 1103, a successor to the UNIVAC 1101, was a computer system designed by Engineering Research Associates and built by the Remington Rand corporation in October 1953. It was the first computer for which Seymour Cray was cred ...

). The Atlas was built for the Navy, which intended to use it in their non-secret code-breaking centers. In the early 1950s a minor political debate broke out in

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

about the Navy essentially "owning" ERA, and the ensuing debates and legal wrangling left the company drained of both capital and spirit. In 1952, Parker sold ERA to

Remington Rand Remington Rand was an early American business machine manufacturer, originally a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers. Formed in 1927 following a merger, Remington Rand w ...

. Although Rand kept the ERA team together and developing new products, it was most interested in ERA's magnetic

drum memory Drum memory was a magnetic data storage device invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria. Drums were widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory. For many early computers, drum memory formed the main working memory of ...

systems. Rand soon merged with

Sperry Corporation Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroug ...

to become

Sperry Rand Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroug ...

. In the process of merging the companies, the ERA division was folded into Sperry's UNIVAC division. At first this did not cause too many changes at ERA, since the company was used primarily to provide engineering talent to support a variety of projects. However, one major project was moved from UNIVAC to ERA, the

UNIVAC II The UNIVAC II computer was an improvement to the UNIVAC I that the UNIVAC division of Sperry Rand first delivered in 1958. The improvements included the expansion of core memory from 2,000 to 10,000 words; UNISERVO II tape drives, which could us ...

project, which led to lengthy delays and upsets to nearly everyone involved. Since the Sperry "big company" mentality encroached on the decision-making powers of the ERA employees, a number left Sperry to form the Control Data Corp. in Sept 1957,Control Data Corporation was incorporated in Minnesota, July 8, 1957 setting up shop in an old warehouse across the river from Sperry's St. Paul laboratory, in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

at 501 Park Avenue. Of the members forming CDC, William Norris was the unanimous choice to become the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of the new company.

Seymour Cray Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925 – October 5, 1996
) was an American

Naval Tactical Data System Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) was a computerized information processing system developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s and first deployed in the early 1960s for use in combat ships. It took reports from multiple sensors on different sh ...

(NTDS), and he did not leave Sperry to join CDC until it was complete. The M-460 was Seymour's first transistor computer, though the power supply rectifiers were still tubes. Control Data 160-A

Control Data Corporation (CDC) Data Collector (2103084782)

Early designs and Cray's big plan

CDC started business by selling subsystems, mostly drum memory systems, to other companies. Cray joined the next year, and he immediately built a small

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch ...

-based 6-bit machine known as the "CDC Little Character" to test his ideas on large-system design and transistor-based machines. "Little Character" was a great success. In 1959, CDC released a 48-bit transistorized version of their re-design of the 1103 re-design under the name

CDC 1604 The CDC 1604 was a 48-bit computing, 48-bit computer designed and manufactured by Seymour Cray and his team at the Control Data Corporation (CDC). The 1604 is known as one of the first commercially successful transistor computer, transistorized co ...

; the first machine was delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1960 at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Legend has it that the 1604 designation was chosen by adding CDC's first street address (501 Park Avenue) to Cray's former project, the ERA-Univac 1103. A 12-bit cut-down version was also released as the

CDC 160A The CDC 160 series was a series of minicomputers built by Control Data Corporation. The CDC 160 and CDC 160-A were 12-bit minicomputers built from 1960 to 1965; the CDC 160G was a 13-bit minicomputer, with an extended version of the CDC 160-A i ...

in 1960, often considered among the first minicomputers. The 160A was particularly notable as it was built as a standard office desk, which was unusual packaging for that era. New versions of the basic 1604 architecture were rebuilt into the

CDC 3000 The CDC 3000 series ("thirty-six hundred" of "thirty-one hundred") computers from Control Data Corporation were mid-1960s follow-ons to the CDC 1604 and CDC 924 systems. Over time, a range of machines were produced - divided into * the 48-bit upp ...

series, which sold through the early and mid-1960s. Cray immediately turned to the design of a machine that would be the fastest (or in the terminology of the day, largest) machine in the world, setting the goal at 50 times the speed of the 1604. This required radical changes in design, and as the project "dragged on" — it had gone on for about four years by then — the management got increasingly upset and it demanded greater oversight. Cray in turn demanded (in 1962) to have his own remote lab, saying that otherwise, he would quit. Norris agreed, and Cray and his team moved to Cray's home town,

Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin Chippewa Falls is a city located on the Chippewa River in Chippewa County in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 14,778 in the 2021 census. Incorporated as a city in 1869, it is the county seat of Chippewa Cou ...

. Not even Bill Norris, the founder and president of CDC, could visit Cray's laboratory without an invitation.

Peripherals business

In the early 1960s, the corporation moved to the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul where Norris lived. Through this period, Norris became increasingly worried that CDC had to develop a "critical mass" to compete with IBM. To do this, he started an aggressive program of buying up various companies to round out CDC's peripheral lineup. In general, they tried to offer a product to compete with any of IBM's, but running 10% faster and costing 10% less. This was not always easy to achieve. One of its first peripherals was a tape transport, which led to some internal wrangling as the Peripherals Equipment Division attempted to find a reasonable way to charge other divisions of the company for supplying the devices. If the division simply "gave" them away at cost as part of a system purchase, they would never have a real budget of their own. Instead, a plan was established in which it would share profits with the divisions selling its peripherals, a plan eventually used throughout the company. The tape transport was followed by the ''405

Card Reader A card reader is a data input device that reads data from a card-shaped storage medium. The first were punched card readers, which read the paper or cardboard punched cards that were used during the first several decades of the computer industry ...

'' and the ''415 Card Punch'', followed by a series of

tape drive A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and a long archival stability. ...

s and drum printers, all of which were designed in-house. The printer business was initially supported by

Holley Carburetor Holley Performance Products is an automobile, automotive performance company based in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded in 1896 in Bradford, Pennsylvania by George Holley and Earl Holley. When the company was based in Michigan it was a major ...

in the

Rochester, Michigan Rochester is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 12,711 at the 2010 census. It is a northern suburb in Metro Detroit located 20 miles north of the city of Detroit. Rochester was the first European settlem ...

suburb outside of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

. They later formalized this by creating a jointly held company, Holley Computer Products. Holley later sold its stake back to CDC, the remainder becoming the Rochester Division. Train printers and band printers in Rochester were developed in a joint venture with NCR and ICL, with CDC holding controlling interest. This joint venture was known as Computer Peripherals, Inc. (CPI). In the early 80s, it was merged with dot matrix computer printer manufacturer Centronics. Norris was particularly interested in breaking out of the

punched card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in data processing applications or to di ...

–based workflow, where IBM held a stranglehold. He eventually decided to buy Rabinow Engineering, one of the pioneers of

optical character recognition Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) is the electronic or mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo of a document, a sc ...

(OCR) systems. The idea was to bypass the entire punched card stage by having the operators simply type onto normal paper pages with an OCR-friendly typewriter font, and then submit those pages to the computer. Since a typewritten page contains much more information than a punched card (which has essentially one line of text from a page), this would offer savings all around. This seemingly simple task turned out to be much harder than anyone expected, and while CDC became a major player in the early days of OCR systems, OCR has remained a niche product to this day. Rabinow's plant in Rockville, MD was closed in 1976, and CDC left the business. With the continued delays on the OCR project, it became clear that punched cards were not going to go away any time soon, and CDC had to address this as quickly as possible. Although the 405 remained in production, it was an expensive machine to build. So another purchase was made,

Bridge Engineering A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

, which offered a line of lower-cost as well as higher-speed card punches. All card-handling products were moved to what became the Valley Forge Division after Bridge moved to a new factory, with the tape transports to follow. Later, the Valley Forge and Rochester divisions were spun off to form a new joint company with National Cash Register (later NCR Corporation), Computer Peripherals Inc (CPI), to share development and production costs across the two companies. ICL later joined the effort. Eventually the Rochester Division was sold to

Centronics Centronics Data Computer Corporation was an American manufacturer of computer printers, now remembered primarily for the parallel interface that bears its name, the Centronics connector. History Foundations Centronics began as a division ...

in 1982. Another side effect of Norris's attempts to diversify was the creation of a number of

service bureau A service bureau is a company that provides business services for a fee. The term has been extensively used to describe technology-based services to financial services companies, particularly banks. Service bureaus are a significant sector within t ...

s that ran jobs on behalf of smaller companies that could not afford to buy computers. This was never very profitable, and in 1965, several managers suggested that the unprofitable centers be closed in a cost-cutting measure. Nevertheless, Norris was so convinced of the idea that he refused to accept this, and ordered an across-the-board "belt tightening" instead.

Control Data Institute

Control Data created an international technical/computer

vocational school A vocational school is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary or post-secondary education designed to provide vocational education or technical skills required to complete the task ...

from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s. By the late 1970s there were sixty-nine learning centers worldwide, serving 18,000 students.

CDC 6600: defining supercomputing

Meanwhile, at the new Chippewa Falls lab, Seymour Cray, Jim Thornton, and Dean Roush put together a team of 34 engineers, which continued work on the new computer design. One of the ways they hoped to improve the CDC 1604 was to use better transistors, and Cray used the new silicon transistors using the planar process, developed by Fairchild Semiconductor. These were much faster than the germanium transistors in the 1604, without the drawbacks of the older mesa silicon transistors. The speed of light restriction forced a more compact design with refrigeration designed by Dean Roush. In 1964, the resulting computer was released onto the market as the

CDC 6600 The CDC 6600 was the flagship of the 6000 series of mainframe computer systems manufactured by Control Data Corporation. Generally considered to be the first successful supercomputer, it outperformed the industry's prior recordholder, the IBM ...

, out-performing everything on the market by roughly ten times. When it sold over 100 units at $8 million ($ million in dollars) each; it was considered a supercomputer. The 6600 had a 100ns,

-based CPU (Central Processing Unit) with multiple asynchronous functional units, using 10 logical, external I/O processors to off-load many common tasks and

core memory Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber * Core, the centra ...

. That way, the CPU could devote all of its time and circuitry to processing actual data, while the other controllers dealt with the mundane tasks like punching cards and running disk drives. Using late-model

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...

s, the machine attained a standard mathematical operations rate of 500 kilo-FLOPS, but the handcrafted computer assembler managed to deliver approximately 1 mega-FLOPS. A simpler, albeit much slower and less expensive version, implemented using a more traditional serial processor design rather than the 6600's parallel functional units, was released as the

CDC 6400 The CDC 6000 series is a discontinued family of mainframe computers manufactured by Control Data Corporation in the 1960s. It consisted of the CDC 6200, CDC 6300, CDC 6400, CDC 6500, CDC 6600 and CDC 6700 computers, which were all extremely rapid a ...

, and a two-processor version of the 6400 is called the CDC 6500. A FORTRAN compiler, known as MNF (Minnesota FORTRAN), was developed by Lawrence A. Liddiard and E. James Mundstock at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

for the 6600. After the delivery of the 6600 IBM took notice of this new company. In 1965 IBM started an effort to build a machine that would be faster than the 6600, the

ACS-1 The ACS-1 and ACS-360 are two related supercomputers designed by IBM as part of the IBM ''Advanced Computing Systems'' project from 1961 to 1969. Although the designs were never finished and no models ever went into production, the project spawned ...

. Two hundred people were gathered on the

U.S. West Coast The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

to work on the project, away from corporate prodding, in an attempt to mirror Cray's off-site lab. The project produced interesting computer architecture and technology, but it was not compatible with IBM's hugely successful System/360 line of computers. The engineers were directed to make it 360-compatible, but that compromised its performance. The ACS was canceled in 1969, without ever being produced for customers. Many of the engineers left the company, leading to a brain-drain in IBM's high-performance departments. In the meantime, IBM announced a new System/360 model, the Model 92, which would be just as fast as CDC's 6600. Although this machine did not exist, sales of the 6600 dropped drastically while people waited for the release of the mythical Model 92. Norris did not take this tactic, dubbed as

fear, uncertainty and doubt Fear, uncertainty and doubt (often shortened to FUD) is a propaganda tactic used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics, polling and cults. FUD is generally a strategy to influence perception by disseminating negative and dubious or ...

(FUD), lying down, and in an extensive antitrust lawsuit launched against IBM a year later, he eventually won a settlement valued at $80 million. As part of the settlement, he picked up IBM's subsidiary, Service Bureau Corporation (SBC), which ran computer processing for other corporations on its own computers. SBC fitted nicely into CDC's existing service bureau offerings. During the designing of the 6600, CDC had set up ''Project SPIN'' to supply the system with a high speed hard disk memory system. At the time it was unclear if disks would replace magnetic memory drums, or whether fixed or removable disks would become the more prevalent. SPIN explored all of these approaches, and eventually delivered a 28" diameter fixed disk and a smaller multi-platter 14" removable disk-pack system. Over time, the hard disk business pioneered in SPIN became a major product line.

CDC 7600 and 8600

In the same month it won its lawsuit against IBM, CDC announced its new computer, the

CDC 7600 The CDC 7600 was the Seymour Cray-designed successor to the CDC 6600, extending Control Data's dominance of the supercomputer field into the 1970s. The 7600 ran at 36.4 MHz (27.5 ns clock cycle) and had a 65 Kword primary memory (with a 6 ...

(previously referred to as the 6800 within CDC). This machine's hardware clock speed was almost four times that of the 6600 (36 MHz vs. 10 MHz), with a 27.5 ns clock cycle, and it offered considerably more than four times the total throughput, with much of the speed increase coming from extensive use of pipelining. The 7600 did not sell well because it was introduced during the 1969 downturn in the U.S. national economy. Its complexity had led to poor reliability. The machine was not totally compatible with the 6000-series and required a completely different operating system, which like most new OSs, was primitive. The 7600 project paid for itself, but damaged CDC's reputation. The 7600 memory had a split primary- and secondary-memory which required user management but was more than fast enough to make it the fastest uniprocessor from 1969 to 1976. A few dozen 7600s were the computers of choice at supercomputer centers around the world. Cray then turned to the design of the

CDC 8600 The CDC 8600 was the last of Seymour Cray's supercomputer designs while he worked for Control Data Corporation. As the natural successor to the CDC 6600 and CDC 7600, the 8600 was intended to be about 10 times as fast as the 7600, already the f ...

. This design included four 7600-like processors in a single, smaller case. The smaller size and shorter signal paths allowed the 8600 to run at much higher clock speeds which, together with faster memory, provided most of the performance gains. The 8600, however, belonged to the "old school" in terms of its physical construction, and it used individual components soldered to circuit boards. The design was so compact that cooling the CPU modules proved effectively impossible, and access for maintenance difficult. An abundance of hot-running solder joints ensured that the machines did not work reliably; Cray recognized that a re-design was needed.

The STAR and the Cyber

In addition to the redesign of the 8600, CDC had another project called the CDC STAR-100 under way, led by Cray's former collaborator on the 6600/7600, Jim Thornton. Unlike the 8600's "four computers in one box" solution to the speed problem, the STAR was a new design using a unit that we know today as the

vector processor In computing, a vector processor or array processor is a central processing unit (CPU) that implements an instruction set where its instructions are designed to operate efficiently and effectively on large one-dimensional arrays of data calle ...

. By highly pipelining mathematical instructions with purpose-built instructions and hardware, mathematical processing is dramatically improved in a machine that was otherwise slower than a 7600. Although the particular set of problems it would be best at solving was limited compared to the general-purpose 7600, it was for solving exactly these problems that customers would buy CDC machines. Since these two projects competed for limited funds during the late 1960s, Norris felt that the company could not support simultaneous development of the STAR and a complete redesign of the 8600. Therefore, Cray left CDC to form the

company in 1972. Norris remained, however, a staunch supporter of Cray, and invested money into Cray's new company. In 1974 CDC released the STAR, designated as the Cyber 203. It turned out to have "real world" performance that was considerably worse than expected. STAR's chief designer, Jim Thornton, then left CDC to form the

Network Systems Corporation Network Systems Corporation (NSC) was an early manufacturer of high-performance computer networking products. Founded in 1974, NSC produced hardware products that connected IBM and Control Data Corporation (CDC) mainframe computers to peripherals ...

. In 1975, a STAR-100 was placed into service in a Control Data service center which was considered the first supercomputer in a data center. Founder William C. Norris presided at the podium for the press conference announcing the new service. Publicity was a key factor in making the announcement a success by coordinating the event with Guinness; thus, establishing the Star-100 as "The most powerful and fastest computer" which was published in the Guinness Book of World Records. The late Duane Andrews, Public Relations, was responsible for coordinating this event. Andrews successfully attracted many influential editors including the research editor at Business Week who chronicled this publicity release "... as the most exciting public event he attended in 20 years". Sharing the podium were William C. Norris, Boyd Jones V.P. and S. Steve Adkins, Data Center Manager. It was extremely rare for Bill Norris to take the podium being a very private individual. Also, during the lunch at a local country club, Norris signed a huge stack of certificates attesting to the record which were printed by the Star 100 on printer paper produced in our Lincoln, Nebraska plant. The paper included a half-tone photo of the Star 100. The main customers of the STAR-100 data center were oil companies running oil reservoir simulations. Most notably was the simulation controlled from a terminal in Texas which solved oil extraction simulations for oil fields in Kuwait. A front page Wall Street Journal news article resulted in acquiring a new user, Allis-Chalmers, for simulation of a damaged hydroelectric turbine in a Norwegian mountain hydropower plant. A variety of systems based on the basic 6600/7600 architecture were repackaged in different price/performance categories of the CDC Cyber, which became CDC's main product line in the 1970s. An updated version of the STAR architecture, the Cyber 205, had considerably better performance than the original. By this time, however, Cray's own designs, like the Cray-1, were using the same basic design techniques as the STAR, but were computing much faster. The Star 100 was able to process vectors up to 64K (65536) elements, versus 64 elements for the Cray-1, but the Star 100 took much longer for initiating the operation so the Cray-1 outperformed with short vectors. Sales of the STAR were weak, but Control Data Corp. produced a successor system, the Cyber 200/205, that gave Cray Research some competition. CDC also embarked on a number of special projects for its clients, who produced an even smaller number of

black project A black project is a highly classified, top-secret military or defense project that is not publicly acknowledged by government, military personnel, or contractors. Examples of United States military aircraft developed as black projects include the ...

computers. The CDC Advanced Flexible Processor (AFP), also known as CYBER PLUS, was one such machine. Another design direction was the "Cyber 80" project, which was aimed at release in 1980. This machine could run old 6600-style programs, and also had a completely new 64-bit architecture. The concept behind Cyber 80 was that current 6000-series users would migrate to these machines with relative ease. The design and debugging of these machines went on past 1980, and the machines were eventually released under other names. CDC was also attempting to diversify its revenue from hardware into services and this included its promotion of the PLATO computer-aided learning system, which ran on Cyber hardware and incorporated many early computer interface innovations including bit-mapped touchscreen terminals.

Magnetic Peripherals Inc.

Meanwhile, several very large Japanese manufacturing firms were entering the market. The supercomputer market was too small to support more than a handful of companies, so CDC started looking for other markets. One of these was the hard disk drive (HDD) market. Magnetic Peripherals Inc., later Imprimis Technology was originally a joint venture with

formed in 1975 to manufacture HDDs for both companies. CII-Honeywell Bull later purchased a 3 percent interest in MPI from Honeywell. Sperry became a partner in 1983 with 17 percent, making the ownership split CDC (67%) and Honeywell (17%). MPI was a captive supplier to its parents. It sold on an OEM basis only to them while CDC sold MPI product to third parties under its brand name. It became a major player in the HDD market. It was the worldwide leader in 14 inch disk drive technology in the

OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

marketplace in the late 1970s and early 1980s especially with its SMD ( Storage Module Device) and CMD (Cartridge Module Drive), with its plant at Brynmawr in the South Wales valleys running

24/7 In commerce and industry, 24/7 or 24-7 service (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is service that is available at any time and usually, every day. An alternate orthography for the numerical part includes 24×7 (usually pronounced "twenty ...

production. The Magnetic Peripherals division in Brynmawr had produced 1 million disks and 3 million magnetic tapes by October 1979. CDC was an early developer of the eight-inch drive technology with products from its MPI

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

Operation. Its

CDC Wren Wren was the major brand name A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition ...

series drives were particularly popular with "high end" users, although it was behind the capacity growth and performance curves of numerous startups such as Micropolis, Atasi, Maxtor, and Quantum. CDC also co-developed the now universal

Advanced Technology Attachment Parallel ATA (PATA), originally , also known as IDE, is a standard interface designed for IBM PC-compatible computers. It was first developed by Western Digital and Compaq in 1986 for compatible hard drives and CD or DVD drives. The connection ...

(ATA) interface with

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...

and

Western Digital Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology produc ...

, which was aimed at lowering the cost of adding low-performance drives. CDC founded a separate division called ''Rigidyne'' in

Simi Valley Simi Valley (; Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in the valley of the same name in the southeast region of Ventura County, California, United States. Simi Valley is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. The ...

, California, to develop 3.5-inch drives using technology from the Wren series. These were marketed by CDC as the "Swift" series, and were among the first high-performance 3.5-inch drives on the market at their introduction in 1987. In September 1988 CDC merged Rigidyne and MPI into the umbrella subsidiary of Imprimis Technology. The next year Seagate Technology purchased Imprimis for $250 million in cash, 10.7 million in Seagate stock and a $50 million promissory note.

Investments

Control Data held interests in other companies including computer research company Arbitron, Commercial Credit Corporation and Ticketron.

Commercial Credit Corporation

In 1968, Commercial Credit Corporation was the target of a hostile takeover by

Loews Inc. Loews Cineplex Entertainment, also known as Loews Incorporated, is an American theater chain operating in North America. From 1924 until 1959, it was also the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM). The company was originally ca ...

Loews had acquired nearly 10% of CCC, which it intended to break up on acquisition. To avoid the takeover, CCC forged a deal with CDC lending them the money to purchase control in CCC instead, and "That is how a computer company came to own a fleet of fishing boats in the Chesapeake Bay." By the 1980s, Control Data entered an unstable period, which resulted in the company liquidating many of their assets. In 1986,

Sandy Weill Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Sandy (surname), a list of people *Sandy (singer), Brazilian singer and actress Sandy Leah Lima (born 1983) *(Sandy) A ...

convinced the Control Data management to spin off their Commercial Credit subsidiary to prevent the company's potential liquidation. Over a period of years, Weill used Commercial Credit to build an empire that became Citigroup. In 1999, Commercial Credit was renamed CitiFinancial, and in 2011, the full-service network of US CitiFinancial branches were renamed OneMain Financial.

Ticketron

In 1969, Control Data acquired 51% of Ticketron for $3.9 million from

Cemp Investments Cemp Investments (1951–1987, succeeded by Claridge Investments) was the primary holding company and investment vehicle for, and named after, the four children of Samuel Bronfman: Charles Bronfman, Edgar Bronfman, Aileen "Minda" Bronfman de Gunzbu ...

. In 1970, Ticketron became the sole computerized ticketing provider in the United States. In 1973, Control Data increased the size of its investment. Ticketron also provided ticketing terminals and back-end infrastructure for

parimutuel betting Parimutuel betting or pool betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vigorish" are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winnin ...

, and provided similar services for a number of US lotteries, including those in New York,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. By the mid 1980s, Ticketron was CDC's most profitable business with revenue of $120 million and CDC, which was loss-making at the time, considered selling the business. In 1990 the majority of Ticketron's assets and business, with the exception of a small antitrust carve-out for Broadway's "Telecharge" business-unit, were bought by

The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and ...

who sold it the following year to rival

Ticketmaster Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010, it merged with Live Nation under the name Live Nation Enter ...

ETA Systems, wind-down and sale of assets

CDC decided to fight for the high-performance niche, but Norris considered that the company had become moribund and unable to quickly design competitive machines. In 1983 he set up a spinoff company, ETA Systems, whose design goal was a machine processing data at 10 GFLOPs, about 40 times the speed of the Cray-1. The design never fully matured, and it was unable to reach its goals. Nevertheless, the product was one of the fastest computers on the market, and 7 liquid nitrogen-cooled and 27 smaller air cooled versions of the computers were sold during the next few years. They used the new CMOS chips, which produced much less heat. The effort ended after half-hearted attempts to sell ETA Systems. In 1989, most of the employees of ETA Systems were laid off, and the remaining ones were folded into CDC. Despite having valuable technology, CDC still suffered huge losses in 1985 ($567 million) and 1986 while attempting to reorganize. As a result, in 1987 it sold its PathLab Laboratory Information System to 3M. While CDC was still making computers, it was decided that hardware manufacturing was no longer as profitable as it used to be, and so in 1988 it was decided to leave the industry, bit by bit. The first division to go was Imprimis. After that CDC sold other assets such as VTC (a chip maker that specialized in mass-storage circuitry and was closely linked with MPI), and non-computer-related assets like Ticketron. Finally, in 1992, the computer hardware and service businesses were spun out as Control Data Systems, Inc. (CDS). In 1999, CDS was bought out by Syntegra, a subsidiary of the

BT Group BT Group plc ( trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, bro ...

, and merged into BT's Global Services organization. CDC's Energy Management Division was one of its most successful business units, providing control systems solutions that managed as much as 25% of all electricity on the planet. In 1988 or 1989, this division was renamed Empros and was later sold to Siemens as CDC broke apart. In June of 1998, CDC sold its last software group ICEM Technologies, makers of ICEM DDN and

ICEM Surf ICEM Surf is a computer-aided industrial design (a.k.a. CAID) software used for creating 3D digital surfaces for automotive design and industrial design. This software is used to create class A surfaces using the Bézier surface modeling metho ...

, to PTC for $40.6m. Finally, after the CDS spinout, all that was left of CDC was its services business, and it became known as the

Corporation. Ceridian continues as a successful outsourced IT company focusing on human resources. In 1997 General Dynamics acquired the Computing Devices International Division of Ceridian. Computing Devices, headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota, was a defense electronics and systems integration business, originally Control Data's Government Systems Division.

Timeline of systems releases

et al – 1604, 1604-A, 1604-B, 1604-C, 924 (a "cut down" 1604 sibling)
*

CDC 160 series The CDC 160 series was a series of minicomputers built by Control Data Corporation. The CDC 160 and CDC 160-A were 12-bit minicomputers built from 1960 to 1965; the CDC 160G was a 13-bit minicomputer, with an extended version of the CDC 160-A ins ...

– 160, 160A (160-A), 160G (160-G)
*

CDC 3000 series The CDC 3000 series ("thirty-six hundred" of "thirty-one hundred") computers from Control Data Corporation were mid-1960s follow-ons to the CDC 1604 and CDC 924 systems. Over time, a range of machines were produced - divided into * the 48-bit upp ...

– 3100, 3200, 3300, 3400, 3500, 3600, 3800
*

CDC 6000 series The CDC 6000 series is a discontinued family of mainframe computers manufactured by Control Data Corporation in the 1960s. It consisted of the CDC 6200, CDC 6300, CDC 6400, CDC 6500, CDC 6600 and CDC 6700 computers, which were all extremely rapid ...

– 6200, 6400, 6500, 6700
*

* CDC CYBER – 17, 18, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 203, 205, Omega/480, 700
* CDC STAR-100 *1957 – Founding *1959 – 1604 *1960 – 1604-B *1961 – 160 *1962 – 924 (a 24-bit 1604) *1963 – 160A (160-A), 1604-A, 3400, 6600 *1964 – 160G (160-G), 3100, 3200, 3600, 6400 *1965 – 1604-C,

1700 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 19), where then Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 11 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 17 ...

, 3300, 3500, 8050, 8090 *1966 – 3800, 6200, 6500, Station 6000 *1968 – 7600 *1969 – 6700 *1970 – STAR-100 *1971 – Cyber 71, Cyber 72, Cyber 73, Cyber 74, Cyber 76 *1972 – 5600, 8600 *1973 – Cyber 170, Cyber 172, Cyber 173, Cyber 174, Cyber 175, Cyber 17 *1976 – Cyber 18 *1977 – Cyber 171, Cyber 176, Omega/480 *1979 – Cyber 203,

Cyber 720 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

Cyber 730 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventio ...

Cyber 740 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

Cyber 750 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

Cyber 760 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

*1980 – Cyber 205 *1982 –

Cyber 815 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

Cyber 825 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

, Cyber 835,

Cyber 845 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

, Cyber 855, Cyber 865,

Cyber 875 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

*1983 –

ETA10 The ETA10 is a vector supercomputer designed, manufactured, and marketed by ETA Systems, a spin-off division of Control Data Corporation (CDC). The ETA10 was an evolution of the CDC Cyber 205, which can trace its origins back to the CDC ST ...

*1984 – Cyber 810, Cyber 830, Cyber 840, Cyber 850,

Cyber 860 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventio ...

, Cyber 990, CyberPlus *1987 –

Cyber 910 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventio ...

Cyber 930 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

Cyber 995 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventio ...

*1988 – Cyber 960 *1989 – Cyber 920,

Cyber 2000 Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

Note: The 8xx & 9xx Cyber models, introduced beginning in 1982, formed the 64-bit Cyber 180 series, and their Peripheral Processors (PPs) were 16-bit. The 180 series had virtual memory capability, using CDC's NOS/VE operating system.
The more complete nomenclature for these was 180/xxx, although at times the shorter form (e.g. Cyber 990) was used.

Peripheral Systems Group

Control Data Corporation's Peripheral Systems Group was both a hardware and a software development unit that functioned in the 1970s and 1980s. Their services including development and marketing of IBM-oriented (operating) systems software. One of the Peripheral Systems Group's software products was named CUPID, "Control Data's Program for Unlike Data Set Concatenation." Its focus was for customers of IBM's MVS operating system, and the intended audience was systems programmers. The product's General Information and Reference Manual included SysGen-like options and information about internal user-accessible control blocks.

Film and science fiction references

* '' Mars Needs Women'' (1967) – a CDC 3400 is used for radio communication and to direct the actions of the military as they intercept the Martian spaceships. * '' 2001 A Space Odyssey'' (1968) – The HAL-9000 computer is a CDC computer. The 9000 series was an extrapolation of the CDC 6000 and 7000 series. The original release of the film quite clearly showed the CDC logo. * '' Colossus: The Forbin Project'' (1970) – The title sequences to this film include tape drives and other early CDC equipment. * ''Search'' (1972) – Control Data Equipment was used in the "Probe Control" command center for both the television series and its pilot ''PROBE''; the end credits list "Computer Equipment provided by Control Data Corporation". * '' The Mad Bomber'' (1973) – The police department has a CDC 3100 that they use to profile the bomber. * '' The Adolescence of P-1'' (1977), by Thomas Ryan – Control Data computers were very enticing to young P-1. * '' The New Avengers'' – In episode 2-10 (#23) ("Complex", 1977) Purdey uses a CDC card reader. * ''

Mi-Sex Mi-Sex (also styled as MiSex) is a New Zealand new wave band originally active from 1978 to 1986, and led for much of its existence by Steve Gilpin as vocalist, Kevin Stanton as guitarist and songwriter, Murray Burns as keyboardist and songwr ...

– Computer Games'': 1979 pop music video. The band enters the computer room in the Control Data North Sydney building and proceeds to play with CDC equipment. * ''

Tron ''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action- adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer ...

'' (1982) – In the wide screen version of the film, when Flynn and Lora sneak into Encom, a

is visible in the background, alongside a Cray-1. This scene was shot at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. * ''

WarGames ''WarGames'' is a 1983 American science fiction techno-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film, which stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, follow ...

'' (1983) – Just before David and Jennifer meet with Jim and Melvin, several Control Data disk packs are visible in the background. * ''

Die Hard ''Die Hard'' is a 1988 American action film directed by John McTiernan, with a screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. Based on the 1979 novel '' Nothing Lasts Forever'', by Roderick Thorp, it stars Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Al ...

'' (1988) – The computer room shot up by one of the terrorists contained a number of working Cyber 180 computers and a mock-up of an ETA-10 supercomputer, along with a number of other peripheral devices, all provided by CDC Demonstration Services/Benchmark Lab. This equipment was requested on short notice after another computer manufacturer backed out at the last minute. Paul Derby, manager of the Benchmark Lab, arranged to send two van-loads of equipment to Hollywood for the shoot, accompanied by Jerry Sterns of the Benchmark Lab who supervised the equipment while it was on the set. After the machines were returned to Minnesota, they were inspected and tested, and as each machine was sold, a notation was made in the corporate records that the machine had appeared in the film. * ''

They Live ''They Live'' is a 1988 American science fiction action horror film written and directed by John Carpenter, based on the 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson. Starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster, the fil ...

'' (1988), by John Carpenter – As Roddy Piper is trying on his new "sunglasses" that allow him to see the world as it is, he looks at an advertisement for Control Data Corporation and sees the word OBEY.Colin Bowling
A New Order of the Ages
– 2011, , page 112 The film's credits include "special thanks" to CDC.

References

External links

Control Data Corporation Records
at the

, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; CDC records donated by

Ceridian Corporation Ceridian HCM is an American provider of human resources software and services with employees in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and Mauritius. It is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. History Ceridian is a descenda ...

in 1991; finding guide contain
historical timeline
an

Oral history interview with William Norris
discusses

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

years, acquisition of ERA by

, the Univac File computer, work as head of the Univac Division, and the formation of CDC.

, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Oral history interview with Willis K. Drake
Discusses Remington-Rand, the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company,

, and formation of Control Data Corporation.

, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Organized discussion moderated by Neil R. Lincoln
with eighteen Control Data Corporation (CDC) engineers on computer architecture and design.

, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Engineers include Robert Moe, Wayne Specker, Dennis Grinna, Tom Rowan, Maurice Hutson, Curt Alexander, Don Pagelkopf, Maris Bergmanis, Dolan Toth, Chuck Hawley, Larry Krueger, Mike Pavlov, Dave Resnick, Howard Krohn, Bill Bhend, Kent Steiner, Raymon Kort, and Neil R. Lincoln. Discussion topics include

, CDC STAR-100 and

Seymour Cray Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925 – October 5, 1996
) was an American

Information about the spin out of Commercial Credit from Control Data by Sandy Weill
��on display at the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near

Washington Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located in Loudoun County and Fa ...

.
Private Collection of historical documents about CDCControl Data User Manuals Library @ Computing HistoryComputing history describing the use of a range of CDC systems and equipment 1970–1985A German collection of CDC, Cray and other large computer systems, some of them in operation
{{Authority control American companies established in 1957 American companies disestablished in 1992 Chippewa County, Wisconsin Computer companies established in 1957 Computer companies disestablished in 1992 Defunct companies based in Minneapolis Defunct companies based in Minnesota Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct software companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Minnesota Software companies based in Minnesota Supercomputers Technology companies established in 1957 Technology companies disestablished in 1992

Background and origins: World War II–1957

Early designs and Cray's big plan

Peripherals business

Control Data Institute

CDC 6600: defining supercomputing

CDC 7600 and 8600

The STAR and the Cyber

Magnetic Peripherals Inc.

Investments

Commercial Credit Corporation

Ticketron

ETA Systems, wind-down and sale of assets

Timeline of systems releases

Peripheral Systems Group

Film and science fiction references

References

Further reading

External links