Editing Control Data Corporation

{{short description|Defunct supercomputer firm}}
{{redirect|Control Data|the album by Mark Stewart|Control Data (album)}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Control Data Corporation
| logo = Control Data Corporation logo.svg
| caption = 
| type = 
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| genre = <!-- Only used with media and publishing companies -->
| fate = Broken up
| predecessor = 
| successor = [[Ceridian]] (now Dayforce, Inc.)
| foundation = {{Start date and age|1957}}
| founder = 
| defunct = {{End date|1999}}
| location_city = [[Bloomington, Minnesota]]
| location_country = U.S.
| location = 
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| area_served = 
| key_people = [[Seymour Cray]],<br />[[William Norris (CEO)|William Norris]]
| industry = [[Supercomputing]]
| products = 
| services = 
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| aum = <!-- Only used with financial services companies -->
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}}

'''Control Data Corporation''' ('''CDC''') was a [[mainframe]] and [[supercomputer]] company that in the 1960s was one of the nine major U.S. [[computer]] companies, which group included [[IBM]], the [[Burroughs Corporation]], and the [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] (DEC), the [[NCR Corporation]] (NCR), [[General Electric]], [[Honeywell]], [[RCA]], and [[UNIVAC]]. For most of the 1960s, the strength of CDC was the work of the electrical engineer [[Seymour Cray]] who developed a series of fast computers, then considered the fastest computing machines in the world; in the 1970s, Cray left the Control Data Corporation and founded [[Cray Research]] (CRI) to design and make supercomputers. In 1988, after much financial loss, the Control Data Corporation began withdrawing from making computers and sold the affiliated companies of CDC; in 1992, CDC established '''Control Data Systems, Inc.''' The remaining affiliate companies of CDC currently do business as the software company [[Dayforce]].

== Background: World War II – 1957 ==
[[File:Control Data 160-A.jpg|thumb|right|The 12-bit CDC 160 and 160-A architecture were the basis of the peripheral processors (PPs) in the CDC 6000 series.]]
[[File:Control Data Corporation (CDC) Data Collector (2103084782).jpg|thumb|right| ]]
[[File:CDC 6500.jpg|thumb|right|CDC 6500 with open panels. On display at the Living Computer Museum in Seattle, Washington.]]

During [[World War II]] the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] had built up a classified<ref name=Squish1103 /> team of engineers to build [[Bombe#US Navy Bombe|codebreaking machinery]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_cdc%3Fand%255B%255D%3Dsubject%253A%2522cable%2522%26sort%3D%26page%3D2 |title=The BITSAVERS.ORG Documents Library: Control Data Corporation}}</ref> for both [[Japanese naval codes|Japanese]] and [[Enigma machine|German]] electro-mechanical [[cipher]]s. A number of these were produced by a team dedicated to the task working in the [[Washington, D.C.]], 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.<ref>Thomas J. Misa, ''Digital State: The Story of Minnesota's Computing Industry'' (University of Minnesota Press, 2013) </ref>

Eventually they found their solution: John Parker, the owner of a [[Chase Aircraft]] affiliate named Northwestern Aeronautical Corporation<ref name=Squish1103>{{cite web |url=http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/2015.xml |title=Hagley Museum and Library Manuscripts and Archives}}</ref> 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 [[Security clearance|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]] factory.<ref name=ML1103>{{cite web |url=http://vipclubmn.org/Articles/CreativityToObscurity.pdf |title=CREATIVITY – SUCCESS – OBSCURITY}}</ref>

The result was [[Engineering Research Associates]] (ERA). Formed in 1946,<ref name=Squish1103 /> this contract engineering company worked on a number of seemingly unrelated projects in the early 1950s.<ref name=ML1103 /> Among these was the '''ERA Atlas''', an early military [[stored program]] computer, the basis of the [[Univac 1101]], which was followed by the 1102, and then the 36-[[bit]] [[ERA 1103]] ([[UNIVAC 1103]]).  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 [[United States Congress|Congress]] 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]].

Although Rand kept the ERA team together and developing new products, it was most interested in ERA's magnetic [[drum memory]] systems. Rand soon merged with [[Sperry Corporation]] to become [[Sperry Rand]].<ref name="RR1.ChadG">{{cite book | last=Norberg | first=Arthur L. | title=Computers and Commerce: A Study of Technology and Management at Eckert–Mauchly Computer Company, Engineering Research Associates, and Remington Rand, 1946–1957 |url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/computers-and-commerce| publisher=The MIT Press | date=2005-06-01 | isbn=978-0-262-14090-4}}</ref> 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]] 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{{efn|Robert Perkins, William R. Keye, Howard Shekels, Robert Kisch and Seymour Cray}} left Sperry to form the Control Data Corp. in September 1957,<ref name=HistLine>Control Data Corporation was incorporated in Minnesota, July 8, 1957—see {{Cite web |url=http://www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/cdc/histtimeline.html |title=CDC Historical Timeline}}</ref> setting up shop in an old warehouse across the river from Sperry's St. Paul laboratory, in [[Minneapolis]] at 501 Park Avenue. Of the members forming CDC, [[William Norris (CEO)|William Norris]] was the unanimous choice to become the [[chief executive officer]] of the new company. [[Seymour Cray]] soon became the chief designer, though at the time of CDC's formation he was still in the process of completing a prototype for the [[Naval Tactical Data System]] (NTDS), and he did not leave Sperry to join CDC until it was complete. The [[AN/USQ-17|M-460]] was Seymour's first transistor computer, though the power supply rectifiers were still tubes.<ref>{{cite book |author1=J. E. Thornton |author2=M. Macaulay |author3=D. H. Toth |title=Proceedings of the May 6-8, 1958, western joint computer conference: Contrasts in computers on XX – IRE-ACM-AIEE '58 (Western) |chapter=The Univac® M-460 computer |date=1958 |pages=70–74 |doi=10.1145/1457769.1457791 |chapter-url=http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/UNIVAC-M-640.html |access-date=24 May 2019 |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery|s2cid=10278494 }}</ref>

== Early designs and Cray's big plan ==
CDC started business by selling subsystems, mostly drum memory systems, to other companies.<ref>{{cite web |title=William Norris (CEO) |url=http://www10.dict.cc/wp_examples.php?lp_id=1&lang=en&s=control%20data |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171002115902/http://www10.dict.cc/wp_examples.php?lp_id=1&lang=en&s=control%20data |archive-date=2 Oct 2017}}</ref> Cray joined the next year, and he immediately built a small [[transistor]]-based 6-bit machine known as the "CDC Little Character" to test his ideas on large-system design and transistor-based machines.<ref>{{cite web|title=Control Data Corporation, "Little Character" Prototype|url=http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/supercomputers/10/22/18|website=Computer History Museum|access-date=21 April 2016|ref=chm-little-character}}</ref> "Little Character" was a great success.

In 1959, CDC released a 48-bit transistorized version of their re-design of the 1103 re-design <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/seymourbio |title=Tribute to Seymour Cray |publisher=IEEE Computer Society (webcitation.org/5pOwR2VJX) |access-date=2017-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100824155753/http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/seymourbio |archive-date=2010-08-24 |url-status=dead }}</ref> under the name [[CDC 1604]];  the first machine was delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1960<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.minnesotainventors.org/inductees/seymour-cray.html
|title=Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame}}</ref> 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.<ref>Curiously, a very detailed 1975 [http://purl.umn.edu/104327 oral history] with CDC's computer engineers does '''not''' confirm this legend: when the "1604" question was asked, the insiders laughed and responded: "It was quite popular at the time that this was the origin." Page 21 of the oral history provides the official CDC explanation for 1604.</ref>

A 12-bit cut-down version was also released as the [[CDC 160A]] in 1960, often considered among the first [[minicomputer]]s. 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]] 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"&nbsp;— it had gone on for about four years by then&nbsp;— 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]]. Not even Bill Norris, the founder and president of CDC, could visit Cray's laboratory without an invitation.<ref>See story of a salesman's uninvited visit to Chippewa Falls [http://www.travel-tidbits.com/tidbits/003654.shtml here] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051115050846/http://www.travel-tidbits.com/tidbits/003654.shtml |date=2005-11-15 }}.</ref>

== Peripherals business ==
In the early 1960s, the corporation moved to the [[Highland Park, Saint Paul|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<ref>{{cite web|url=http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w65b3sgr |title=Control Data Corporation – Social Networks}}</ref> 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 [[Punched card reader|Card Reader]]'' and the ''415 [[card punch|Card Punch]]'',<ref>Model numbers for CDC's Reader & Punch: {{cite web |url=http://members.iinet.net.au/~tom-hunter |title=Desktop CYBER emulator}}</ref> followed by a series of [[tape drive]]s and [[drum printer]]s, all of which were designed in-house. The printer business was initially supported by [[Holley Carburetor]] in the [[Rochester, Michigan]] suburb outside of [[Detroit]]. 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).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/cdc/acquisitions.html |title=CDC Acquisitions to 1984}}</ref> 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]]–based workflow, where IBM held a stranglehold. He eventually decided to buy Rabinow Engineering, one of the pioneers of [[optical character recognition]] (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, 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. [[International Computers Limited|ICL]] later joined the effort. Eventually the Rochester Division was sold to [[Centronics]] in 1982.

Another side effect of Norris's attempts to diversify was the creation of a number of [[service bureau]]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 [[Control Data Institute|vocational school]] from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s. By the late 1970s there were sixty-nine learning centers worldwide, serving 18,000 students.<ref>[Computerworld, June 5, 1989]</ref>

== 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.

== CDC 7600 and 8600 ==
[[File:CDC 7600.jc.jpg|thumb|CDC 7600, serial no. 1]]
{{main|CDC 7600|CDC 8600}}

In the same month it won its lawsuit against IBM, CDC announced its new computer, the [[CDC 7600]]<ref>{{cite book
|title=ACHIEVING ACCURACY: A Legacy of Computers and Missiles |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1462810659
|isbn=978-1-4628-1065-9  |author=Marshall William McMurran  |date=2008| publisher=Xlibris Corporation }}</ref> (previously referred to as the 6800 within CDC). This machine's hardware clock speed was almost four times that of the 6600 (36&nbsp;MHz vs. 10&nbsp;MHz), with a 27.5 [[nanosecond|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 [[instruction pipeline|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]]. 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 [[soldering|soldered]] to [[circuit board]]s. 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 ==
{{main|CDC STAR-100|CDC 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]]. 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 [[Cray Research]] 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,<ref>{{cite conference|title=The control data STAR-100: performance measurements|first1=Charles J.|last1=Purcell|date=May 1974|book-title=AFIPS '74: Proceedings of the May 6-10, 1974, national computer conference and exposition|doi=10.1145/1500175.1500257}}</ref> 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]].

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 [[Hydroelectricity|hydroelectric]] [[water turbine|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]] computers. The [[CDC Cyber#Cyberplus or Advanced Flexible Processor (AFP)|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 system)|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. ==
{{Redirect|Imprimis Technology|the expansion card manufacturer|Boca Research}}
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 [[Honeywell]] formed in 1975 to manufacture HDDs for both companies. CII-Honeywell Bull later purchased a 3 percent interest in MPI from Honeywell. [[Sperry Corporation|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,<ref>Joint Ventures, Alliances, and Corporate Strategy,  Kathryn Rudie Harrigan, (c) 1985, p. 238</ref> 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 [[Original equipment manufacturer|OEM]] 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]] 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]] Operation. Its [[CDC Wren]] 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 Corporation|Micropolis]], [[Atasi]], [[Maxtor]], and [[Quantum Corporation|Quantum]]. CDC also co-developed the now universal [[Advanced Technology Attachment]] (ATA) interface with [[Compaq]] and [[Western Digital]], which was aimed at lowering the cost of adding low-performance drives.

CDC founded a separate division called Rigidyne in [[Simi Valley, California|Simi Valley]], 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RCRN09BFuYUC&q=Imprimis++seagate&pg=RA1-PA96|title=Computerworld| date=1989-10-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/13/business/control-data-to-sell-unit-to-seagate.html|title=Control Data To Sell Unit To Seagate|date=13 June 1989|work=The New York Times}}</ref>

==Investments==
Control Data held interests in other companies including computer research company [[Arbitron]], Commercial Credit Corporation and [[Ticketron]].<ref name=allen/>
=== Commercial Credit Corporation ===
In 1968, Commercial Credit Corporation was the target of a hostile takeover by [[Loews Corporation|Loews Inc.]]<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1968/06/18/page/55/article/acquisition-offer-still-good-loews
|title=ACQUISITION OFFER STILL GOOD: LOEW'S
|date=June 18, 1968}}</ref> Loews had acquired nearly 10% of CCC, which it intended to break up on acquisition.<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1993927/loews-theatres-inc-v-commercial-credit-company  |title=Loew's Theatres, Inc. v. Commercial Credit Company, 243 A.2d 78}}</ref> 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."<ref name="Price">{{cite book|last=Price|first=Robert|title=The Eye for Innovation: Recognizing Possibilities and Managing the Creative Enterprise|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, Ct|date=2005-11-11|edition=1|volume=11|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300108774/page/168 168]|isbn=978-0-300-10877-4|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300108774/page/168}}</ref> By the 1980s, Control Data entered an unstable period, which resulted in the company liquidating many of their assets. In 1986, [[Sanford I. Weill|Sandy Weill]] 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]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=O'brien|first1=Timothy L.|last2=Creswell|first2=Julie|title=Laughing All the Way From the Bank|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/business/laughing-all-the-way-from-the-bank.html?pagewanted=all|website=The New York Times|access-date=27 July 2016|date=11 September 2005}}</ref> In 1999, Commercial Credit was renamed CitiFinancial, and in 2011, the full-service network of US CitiFinancial branches were renamed [[OneMain Financial]].<ref name="Citicorp-Nov-1999-10-Q">{{cite web|url=http://edgar.secdatabase.com/1918/100547799005214/filing-main.htm |title=Citicorp, Form 10-Q, Quarterly Report, Filing Date Nov 12, 1999 |publisher=secdatabase.com |access-date =Mar 28, 2013}}</ref>
===Ticketron===
{{main article|Ticketron}}
In 1969, Control Data acquired 51% of Ticketron for $3.9 million from [[Cemp Investments]].<ref name=ct/> In 1970, Ticketron became the sole computerized ticketing provider in the United States.<ref name=ct>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=April 8, 1970|page=117|last=Arneel|first=Gene|title=Computicket Folds With $13-Mil Loss, But Ticketron Still Punching Away}}</ref> In 1973, Control Data increased the size of its investment.

Ticketron also provided ticketing terminals and back-end infrastructure for [[parimutuel betting]], and provided similar services for a number of [[Lotteries in the United States|US lotteries]], including those in [[New York City|New York]], [[Illinois]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[Delaware]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]] and [[Maryland]].<ref name=allen>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=May 14, 1986|page=92|title=Allen & Co's $165-Mil Deal For Ticketron; No Changes Seen}}</ref>

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.<ref name=allen/> 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]] who sold it the following year to rival [[Ticketmaster]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/28/business/company-news-ticketmaster-deal-to-get-ticketron.html|access-date=May 30, 2020|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Ticketmaster Deal To Get Ticketron|page=4 (section D)|date=February 28, 1991}}</ref>

== 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.
{{pic|Control Data Systems logo.svg|Logo of Control Data Systems}}
Despite having valuable technology, CDC still suffered huge losses in 1985 ($567 million<ref name=allen/>) and 1986 while attempting to reorganize. As a result, in 1987 it sold its PathLab Laboratory Information System to [[3M]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.3m.com/us/healthcare/professionals/wound_care/downloads/3m_healthcare_history.pdf |title=3M Health Care History |access-date=2012-07-02 |website=3m.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618161834/http://www.3m.com/us/healthcare/professionals/wound_care/downloads/3m_healthcare_history.pdf |archive-date=2013-06-18 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  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. 

In 1992, the company separated into two independent companies – the computer businesses were spun out as Control Data Systems, Inc. (CDS), while the information service businesses became the [[Ceridian]] Corporation.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Lawrence M. Fisher |title=Control Data to Separate Into Two Companies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/28/business/company-news-control-data-to-separate-into-two-companies.html |newspaper=The New York Times |page=D4 |access-date=25 April 2023 |date=28 May 1992}}</ref> 

CDS later became owner of ICEM Technologies, makers of ICEM DDN and [[ICEM Surf]] software and sold the business to [[PTC_(software_company)|PTC]] for $40.6m in 1998.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2000 |title=PTC Annual report |url=https://investor.ptc.com/static-files/c9f5253f-0564-40c4-af52-a5d895502202 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927132130/https://investor.ptc.com/static-files/c9f5253f-0564-40c4-af52-a5d895502202/ |archive-date=2019-09-27 |publisher=PTC}}</ref> In 1999, CDS was bought out by [[BT Global Services|Syntegra]], a subsidiary of the [[BT Group]], and merged into BT's Global Services organization.

Ceridian continues as a successful outsourced [[IT company]] focusing on [[human resources]]. 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, and went to Ceridian in the split. This division was renamed Empros and was sold to [[Siemens]] in 1993.<ref>{{cite web |title=SIEMENS GETS CERIDIAN's EMPROS |url=https://techmonitor.ai/technology/siemens_gets_ceridians_empros |website=Tech Monitor |access-date=25 April 2023 |date=16 March 1993}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/SIEMENS+ACQUIRES+EMPROS+SYSTEMS+INTERNATIONAL+FROM+CERIDIAN+--...-a013128247|title=SIEMENS acquires EMPROS from CERIDIAN}}</ref> In 1997, [[General Dynamics]] acquired the Computing Devices International Division of Ceridian, which was a defense electronics and systems integration business headquartered in [[Bloomington, Minnesota]] – originally Control Data's Government Systems Division. 

In March 2001, Ceridian separated into two independent companies, with the old Ceridian Corporation renamed itself to [[Nielsen Audio|Arbitron]] Inc. and the rest of the company (consisting of human resources services and Comdata business) took the Ceridian Corporation name.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ARBITRON INC (Form Type: 8-K, Filing Date: 03/30/2001) |url=http://edgar.secdatabase.com/1436/110465901500188/filing-main.htm |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=edgar.secdatabase.com}}</ref> Ceridian was later split again in 2013, with formation of Ceridian HCM Holding Inc. (human resources services) and Comdata Inc. (payments business), marking the end of CDC assets split for good.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ceridian Forms Separate HCM and Payments Businesses {{!}} @CloudExpo |url=http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/2821563 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180106063819/http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/2821563 |archive-date=January 6, 2018 |access-date=January 5, 2018 |website=cloudcomputing.sys-con.com}}</ref>

== Timeline of systems releases ==
* [[CDC 1604]] et al – 1604, 1604-A, 1604-B, 1604-C, 924 (a "cut down" 1604 sibling)<br /> * [[CDC 160 series]] – 160, 160A (160-A), 160G (160-G)<br /> * [[CDC 3000 series]] – 3100, 3200, 3300, 3400, 3500, 3600, 3800<br />  * [[CDC 6000 series]] – 6200, 6400, 6500, 6700<br /> * [[CDC 6600]]<br /> * [[CDC 7600]]<br /> * [[CDC CYBER]] – 17, 18, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 203, 205, Omega/480, 700<br /> * [[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, [[CDC 6600|6600]]
*1964 – 160G (160-G), 3100, 3200, 3600, 6400
*1965 – 1604-C, [[CDC 1700|1700]], 3300, 3500, 8050, 8090
*1966 – 3800, 6200, 6500, Station 6000
*1968 – [[CDC 7600|7600]]
*1969 – 6700
*1970 – [[CDC STAR-100|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 730]], [[Cyber 740]], [[Cyber 750]], [[Cyber 760]]
*1980 – Cyber 205
*1982 – [[Cyber 815]], [[Cyber 825]], [[Cyber 835]], [[Cyber 845]], [[Cyber 855]], [[Cyber 865]], [[Cyber 875]]
*1983 – [[ETA10]]
*1984 – [[Cyber 810]], [[Cyber 830]], [[Cyber 840]], [[Cyber 850]], [[Cyber 860]], [[Cyber 990]], [[CyberPlus]]
*1987 – [[Cyber 910]], [[Cyber 930]], [[Cyber 995]]
*1988 – [[Cyber 960]]
*1989 – [[Cyber 920]], [[Cyber 2000]]

<u>Note</u>: 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.<ref name=VE180>{{cite web|url=http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/computer/en/cdc930.html  |title=Computer history TNO-FEL: CDC CYBER 930-11}}</ref><br />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<ref>1973 - "newly reorganized:" {{cite news |newspaper=Computerworld 
|date=May 23, 1973  |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0kr0uyf4B3cC 
|title=Peripherals Systems}}</ref><ref>1977 - expanding/seeking programmers. {{cite news
|newspaper=Computerworld|title=Programming career opportunities (Job Advertisement)|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_computerworld_1977-10-24_11_43/page/77/mode/2up|date=October 24, 1977  |page=77}}</ref><ref>1978: makes it clear that CDC is hiring IBM mainframe systems programming talent. {{cite news |newspaper=Computerworld  |date=April 17, 1978  |page=90
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VX6vUZNX0QUC|title=Computerworld }}</ref> and 1980s.<ref name=IBsys>{{cite news
|newspaper=Computerworld  |date=November 1, 1982  |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrmcqtZUTMoC|title=Computerworld }}</ref>

Their services including development and marketing of IBM-oriented (operating) systems software.<ref name=IBsys/> One of the Peripheral Systems Group's software products was named CUPID, "Control Data's Program for Unlike Data Set Concatenation."<ref>{{cite book
|title=CDC CUPID Software Package: Control Data's Program for Unlike Data Set Concatenation (General Information and Reference Manual's Manual ID: 60465820, Rev. A) |date=1982}}</ref> 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.<ref>Chapter 2, pages 2-1 thru 2-7.</ref>

==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.<ref name=starringthecomputer />
* ''[[Colossus: The Forbin Project]]'' (1970)&nbsp;– The title sequences to this film include tape drives and other early CDC equipment.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WJ6vBwAAQBAJ&q=Colossus:+The+Forbin+Project+control+data+corporation&pg=PA14|title=A Year of Fear|isbn=9780786431960|last1=Senn|first1=Bryan|date=2007-06-29|publisher=McFarland }}</ref><ref name="newslikethis.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.newslikethis.com/control-data-acclaimed-building-fastest-computers-supercomputers-breakthrough-computering|title=Control Data Acclaimed For Building Fastest Computers Supercomputers Breakthrough Computering}}</ref>
* ''[[The Mad Bomber (1972 film)|The Mad Bomber]]'' (1973) – The police department has a CDC 3100 that they use to profile the bomber.<ref name="starringthecomputer">{{cite web|title=Starring the Computer – CDC 3100|url=http://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=255|website=www.starringthecomputer.com|access-date=27 July 2016}}</ref>
* ''[[The Adolescence of P-1]]'' (1977), by Thomas Ryan&nbsp;– Control Data computers were very enticing to young P-1.<ref name="newslikethis.com" />
* ''[[The New Avengers (TV series)|The New Avengers]]''&nbsp;– In episode 2-10 (#23) ("Complex", 1977) Purdey uses a CDC card reader.<ref name="newslikethis.com" />
* ''[[Mi-Sex]]&nbsp;– [[Computer Games (song)|Computer Games]]'': 1979 pop music video. The band enters the computer room in the Control Data [[North Sydney, New South Wales|North Sydney]] building and proceeds to play with CDC equipment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kotaku.com/5818804/the-amazing-1979-song-about-computer-games|title=The Amazing 1979 Song About Computer Games|author=Luke Plunkett|publisher=Gawker Media|work=Kotaku|date=7 July 2011 }}</ref>
* ''[[Tron]]'' (1982)&nbsp;– In the [[wide screen]] version of the film, when Flynn and Lora sneak into Encom, a [[CDC 7600]] is visible in the background, alongside a [[Cray-1]]. This scene was shot at the [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]].<ref name="newslikethis.com" />
* ''[[Die Hard]]'' (1988)&nbsp;– The computer room shot up by one of the terrorists contained a number of working [[CDC Cyber|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.<ref name="newslikethis.com" /><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150813113021/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/13728/Die-Hard/credits The New York Times Movies]</ref>
* ''[[They Live]]'' (1988), by [[John Carpenter]]&nbsp;– As [[Roddy Piper]]'s character 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.<ref>Colin Bowling, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2tYdQNY-waEC&pg=PA112 A New Order of the Ages] – 2011, {{ISBN|1462039952}}, page 112</ref> The film's credits include "special thanks" to CDC.

== References ==
{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*Lundstrom, David. ''A Few Good Men from Univac''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1987. {{ISBN|0-262-12120-4}}.
*Misa, Thomas J., ed. ''Building the Control Data Legacy: The Career of [[Robert_M._Price_(business_executive)|Robert M. Price]].'' Minneapolis: [[Charles Babbage Institute]], 2012 {{ISBN|1300058188}}
*Murray, Charles J. ''The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards behind the Supercomputer''. New York: John Wiley, 1997. {{ISBN|0-471-04885-2}}.
*Price, Robert M. ''The Eye for Innovation: Recognizing Possibilities and Managing the Creative Enterprise.'' New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005 {{ISBN|030010877X}}
*Thornton, J. E. ''Design of a Computer: The Control Data 6600.'' Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, 1970
*Worthy, James C. ''William C. Norris: Portrait of a Maverick''. Ballinger Pub Co., May 1987. {{ISBN|978-0-88730-087-5}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://purl.umn.edu/41182 Control Data Corporation Records] at the [[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; CDC records donated by [[Ceridian Corporation]] in 1991; finding guide contains [http://www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/cdc/histtimeline.html historical timeline], [http://www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/cdc/prodtimeline.html product timeline], [http://www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/cdc/acquisitions.html acquisitions list], and [http://www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/cdc/jointventures.html joint venture list].
*[http://purl.umn.edu/107551 Oral history interview with William Norris] discusses [[Engineering Research Associates|ERA]] years, acquisition of ERA by [[Remington Rand]], the [[UNIVAC#Models|Univac File]] computer, work as head of the Univac Division, and the formation of CDC. [[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
*[http://purl.umn.edu/107248 Oral history interview with Willis K. Drake] Discusses Remington-Rand, the [[Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company]], [[Engineering Research Associates|ERA]], and formation of Control Data Corporation. [[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
*[http://purl.umn.edu/104327 Organized discussion moderated by Neil R. Lincoln] with eighteen Control Data Corporation (CDC) engineers on computer architecture and design.  [[Charles Babbage Institute]], 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 1604]], [[CDC 6600]], [[CDC 7600]], [[CDC 8600]], [[CDC STAR-100]] and [[Seymour Cray]].
*[http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/biography/S-Z/Weill-Sandy-1933.html Information about the spin out of Commercial Credit from Control Data by Sandy Weill]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061210135222/http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/artifacts/GC-CDC3800.htm Information about the Control Data CDC 3800 Computer]—on display at the [[National Air and Space Museum]] Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near [[Washington Dulles International Airport]].
*[http://philipps-welt.info/CDC_History/0_CDC_history.htm Private Collection of historical documents about CDC]
*[http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/cgi-bin/sitewise.pl?act=sect&pt=1609_398&s=2314 Control Data User Manuals Library @ Computing History]
*[http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/ Computing history describing the use of a range of CDC systems and equipment 1970–1985]
*[http://www.cray-cyber.org/ A German collection of CDC, Cray and other large computer systems, some of them in operation]

{{Control Data Corporation}}
{{Hard disk drive manufacturers}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Minnesota Corporations}}

[[Category:Control Data Corporation| ]]
[[Category:American companies established in 1957]]
[[Category:American companies disestablished in 1992]]
[[Category:Chippewa County, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Computer companies established in 1957]]
[[Category:Computer companies disestablished in 1992]]
[[Category:Defunct companies based in Minneapolis]]
[[Category:Defunct companies based in Minnesota]]
[[Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct computer hardware companies]]
[[Category:Defunct computer systems companies]]
[[Category:Defunct software companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies based in Minnesota]]
[[Category:Software companies based in Minnesota]]
[[Category:Supercomputers]]
[[Category:Technology companies established in 1957]]
[[Category:Technology companies disestablished in 1992]]