Control Data Corporation - Revision history

Jnc: /* External links */ +CDC 160-A desk computer

2025-04-22T14:47:56Z

‎External links: +CDC 160-A desk computer

Jnc: /* External links */ +Reminiscences of computer architecture and computer design at Control Data Corporation

2024-01-11T14:19:09Z

‎External links: +Reminiscences of computer architecture and computer design at Control Data Corporation

Jnc: /* Furter reading */ typo

2022-07-02T21:18:35Z

‎Furter reading: typo

Jnc: /* External links */ typo

2022-07-02T16:57:29Z

‎External links: typo

Jnc: /* Furter reading */ another

2022-07-02T16:56:42Z

‎Furter reading: another

Jnc: /* External links */ bah, needs the arg

2022-06-30T15:22:15Z

‎External links: bah, needs the arg

Jnc: A good start - top entry on 'Wanted pages' for me

2022-06-30T15:20:57Z

A good start - top entry on 'Wanted pages' for me

New page

'''Control Data Corporation''' (usually given as the acronym, '''CDC''') was a company which had its main strengths in [[mainframe]]s, and later, in [[supercomputer]]s especially.

For most of this time, [[Seymour Cray]], CDC's chief designer (he joined a year after CDC was started), was behind most of CDC's greatest machines - notably the [[CDC 6600]] and its successor, the [[CDC 7600]], the first of which famously took from [[International Business Machines|IBM]] the crown of "the fastest computer in the world".

After Cray left CDC to start [[Cray Research]], CDC slowly lost its way; in the early 1980s, it perennially lost money, and in 1988 CDC began to exit the computer business.

==History==

CDC's roots lie in a team set up the U.S. Navy early in World War II to build devices to help in cryptanalysis of both Japanese and German ciphers. After the war, a new company, [[Engineering Research Associates]], was set up to keep the team together, and operating. ERA was sold to [[Remington Rand]] in 1952; Rand shortly thereafter merged with Sperry to form [[Sperry Rand]]. Friction with the corporate environment of Sperry Rand dissatisfied a number of the ERA team, and they left Sperry to form CDC in September, 1957.

==Furter reading==

* David E. Lundstrom, ''A Few Good Men from Univac'', MIT Press, July 1987 - excellent work which covers the entire story, from ERA on

==External links==

* [https://images.computerhistory.org/revonline/images/500004285-03-01.jpg Memorandum] - Watson's famous memo on the CDC 6600, to which Cray reportedly laconically relied “It seems like Mr. Watson has answered his own question.”

[[Category: Manufacturers]]

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 * [https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/104327 Reminiscences of computer architecture and computer design at Control Data Corporation] - good oral history
 * [https://images.computerhistory.org/revonline/images/500004285-03-01.jpg?w=600 Memorandum] - Watson's famous memo on the CDC 6600, to which Cray reportedly laconically replied “It seems like Mr. Watson has answered his own question.”
 [[Category: Manufacturers]]

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 CDC's roots lie in a team set up the U.S. Navy early in World War II to build devices to help in cryptanalysis of both Japanese and German ciphers. After the war, a new company, [[Engineering Research Associates]], was set up to keep the team together, and operating. ERA was sold to [[Remington Rand]] in 1952; Rand shortly thereafter merged with Sperry to form [[Sperry Rand]]. Friction with the corporate environment of Sperry Rand dissatisfied a number of the ERA team, and they left Sperry to form CDC in September, 1957.
-==Furter reading==
+==Further reading==
 * Arthur Lawrence Norberg; ''Computers and Commerce: A Study of Technology and Management at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company, Engineering Research Associates, and Remington Rand''; MIT Press, Cambridge, 2005 - covers the events leading to the split in detail

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 ==External links==
-* [https://images.computerhistory.org/revonline/images/500004285-03-01.jpg?w=600 Memorandum] - Watson's famous memo on the CDC 6600, to which Cray reportedly laconically relied “It seems like Mr. Watson has answered his own question.”
+* [https://images.computerhistory.org/revonline/images/500004285-03-01.jpg?w=600 Memorandum] - Watson's famous memo on the CDC 6600, to which Cray reportedly laconically replied “It seems like Mr. Watson has answered his own question.”
 [[Category: Manufacturers]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:56, 2 July 2022
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	==Furter reading==		==Furter reading==

		+	* Arthur Lawrence Norberg; ''Computers and Commerce: A Study of Technology and Management at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company, Engineering Research Associates, and Remington Rand''; MIT Press, Cambridge, 2005 - covers the events leading to the split in detail
	* David E. Lundstrom, ''A Few Good Men from Univac'', MIT Press, July 1987 - excellent work which covers the entire story, from ERA on		* David E. Lundstrom, ''A Few Good Men from Univac'', MIT Press, July 1987 - excellent work which covers the entire story, from ERA on