Editing Control Data Corporation (section)

== CDC 6600: defining supercomputing ==
[[File:CDC 6600 introduced in 1964.jpg|thumb|CDC 6600]]
{{main|CDC 6000 series}}

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.<ref>''The Supermen'', Charles Murray, John Wiley and Sons, 1997.</ref> In 1964, the resulting computer was released onto the market as the [[CDC 6600]], out-performing everything on the market by roughly ten times. When it sold over 100 units at $8 million (${{Inflation|US|8|1964}} million in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars) each; it was considered a [[History of supercomputing|supercomputer]].

The 6600 had a 100ns, [[transistor]]-based [[central processing unit|CPU]] (Central Processing Unit) with multiple asynchronous functional units, using 10 logical, external [[channel controller|I/O processors]] to off-load many common tasks and [[Magnetic-core memory|core memory]]. 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]]s, the machine attained a standard mathematical operations rate of 500 [[FLOPS|kiloFLOPS]], but handcrafted [[Assembly_language|assembly]] managed to deliver approximately 1 megaFLOPS. 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]], 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]] for the 6600.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Communications of the ACM|last=Frisch|first=Michael|title=Remarks on Algorithms|date=Dec 1972|volume=15|issue=12|page=1074|doi=10.1145/361598.361914|s2cid=6571977|doi-access=free}}</ref>

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]]. Two hundred people were gathered on the [[West Coast of the United States|U.S. West Coast]] 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]] (FUD), lying down, and in an extensive [[antitrust]] lawsuit launched against IBM a year later, he eventually won a settlement valued at $80 million.<ref>[http://purl.umn.edu/107431 Oral history interview with Richard G. Lareau] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120718125648/http://purl.umn.edu/107431 |date=2012-07-18 }}, [[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota.</ref> 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.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20081214072759/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903788,00.html "COMPUTERS: A Settlement for IBM"], ''Time'' magazine, Monday, Jan. 29, 1973.<blockquote>"In return for dropping its suit, Control Data won a good deal. For about $16 million, it will acquire IBM's Service Bureau Corp., a subsidiary that processes customers' data and sells time on its own computers. Wall Street analysts reckon that the Service Bureau's real market value is closer to $60 million. In addition, IBM will buy services from the bureau for five years, stay out of the services business itself in the U.S. for six years and reimburse Control Data for $15 million in legal fees spent on the case. Total cost of the package to IBM: at least $80 million. William C. Norris, Control Data's one-man-gang chairman, said that the daring suit had turned out to be 'one of the best management decisions in our history.'&nbsp;..."</blockquote></ref>

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 drum]]s, 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.